


O Raven, Raven, wherefore art thou...Alex?!

by amcsummersgoddess



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Crushes, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Healthy Relationships, Inspired by Romeo and Juliet, M/M, Mutual Pining, Romeo and Juliet References, Teen Angst, Teenage Drama, Theatre, Theatre Junkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-27
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2020-10-29 10:01:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 29,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20794811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amcsummersgoddess/pseuds/amcsummersgoddess
Summary: In fair Westchester where we lay our scene:Hank joined the school play in hopes of kissing Raven...but Raven suddenly got mono (it was from Azazel)! Poor girl cannot perform in the play, but nonetheless! Alex stepped up and took her place! Did he have a choice? None at all!Mr. Lehnsherr, on the other hand, had came to a standstill with regards to his lovelife. Turning to his son for advice may not be his best bet, but he trusted his word!And Mr. Howlett, well, he frankly wasn’t getting paid enough for this shit.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Very glad that this fic is now out and officially here!!! It is six lovely chapters (as one can see) and I hope you all enjoy reading as much as I did writing!!!

_Tick._

Hank tapped his pen anxiously against his notebook, staring at the clock intensely. One more minute and he could race out of History and head straight to the bulletin board posted right outside of the school’s theatre. 

He was a man of science, not one for acting, but him signing up for the school play was something he _needed_ to do. The explanation was simple: He heard that Raven wanted the main lead as Juliet and well, Hank was sure as Hell going to be her Romeo.

He read the play himself from cover to cover countless times and had Romeo’s lines memorized like the back of his hand so he knew he had to get this part.

_Tock._

The bell rang, ending yet another day at school and Hank bolted right out of the room and raced down the hall. He excused his way through the flooded hallways and was winded by the time he got to the theatre hallway, coming to a halt as he saw Raven by the bulletin.

“Be cool,” he told himself as he ran a hand through his hair, taking in a deep breath as he walked over to her. As he got closer and closer, butterflies started to swarm his stomach and he couldn’t help but feel flustered as he approached her. “Signing up for the play?” He cracked a small smile as Raven turned to look at him, his breath catching in his throat. 

“Of course. I was _born_ to play Juliet,” she grinned, turning back to the bulletin to sign her name on the sign-up sheet. “What about you, McCoy?”

“You know my name?” Hank blurted like a fool, wanting to smack himself in the face for being such an idiot.

Raven giggled as she looked at Hank with a bit of astonishment. “Of course I know your name. You’re the smartest kid in our grade, probably the whole school really. You’re in my Chemistry class too.” Hank nodded, getting lost in Raven’s emerald eyes as she continued to speak. “Are you signing up for the play too?”

“Yes,” he replied in a dazed like state before clearing his throat and regaining his composure. “Yes I am. I’m hoping to get the role of Romeo.”

Raven looked him up and down, her gaze settling on Hank’s face. “I hope so too,” she handed Hank the pen she was holding which he took instantly. “See you in Chemistry,” she gave a small wave goodbye before sauntering off.

“See you,” Hank smiled at her backside, internally cheering as he signed his name on the line right below Raven’s.

***

As Logan’s class cleared out, thank fucking God it did since he was far from done today, he started to erase whatever rambles were on his board. He enjoyed teaching some days but some days were certainly not today.

He was tired of repeating the same lesson over and over again which he did every single day but that was his job. And sometimes being employed sucked. It got the bills paid, but was it truly worth it?

The ping from his computer snapped his attention away from the board and he went over to his computer. He groaned quietly as he saw it was an email from Principal Xavier. Logan had nothing against the guy and for a boss he was pretty nice, but it still wasn’t peachy to receive an email from him, especially at the end of the day.

Maybe Logan was getting fired. The idea excited him and terrified him at the same time. 

He opened the email.

_Mr. Howlett,_

_It has risen to my attention that Mr. LeBeau has gone on a temporary leave for the next three months._

_As you are aware, he is the Theatre teacher and had the school play, Romeo and Juliet, all planned out. The scripts have already been written, it is only a matter of casting the students and putting the whole play together._

_That is where you come in. I believe that you are best suited for organizing the school play and doing your best to put on the show._

_If you have any questions you are more than welcome to come see me in my office or email me back._

_Have a good day,_

_Principal Xavier_

Logan ran a hand over his face and let out a deep sigh. He didn’t have to worry about getting fired, he was going to quit.

He slammed his fist on his desk as he stood up abruptly, causing his desk chair to fly back and hit the wall behind him; Logan didn’t give a damn what school property he damaged in that moment. He stormed out of his classroom and stomped down the hallways till he approached Principal Xavier’s office, barging right on in.

Principal Xavier was on the phone and gave Logan a soft smile, holding up his finger as he indicated for him to wait. Logan huffed and slammed the door to his office, crossing his arms over his chest as he glared down at the other man, waiting for his phone call to end.

“Alright, thank you again for your troubles,” Principal Xavier said kindly as he hung up the phone, turning his attention towards Logan and smiling at him kindly. “What can I do for you, Logan?” After school hours were when Principal Xavier thought it was most appropriate to use first names. How professional.

“What the fuck was that email, _Charles_?!”

Charles didn’t even flinch by Logan’s hollered question as he continued to look at the other man gently. “About the school play? Logan, this should not be a surprise to you. You express interest in them, don’t deny it. You have gone to every school event since you started working here. I think it is about time you take the reins, my friend.”

“That’s not the point,” he huffed. “The point is that I am the least qualified person to do that job.”

“I highly disagree. You know how to keep the students in line, which is very helpful when it comes to taking cues, and students listen to you.” Charles leaned back in his chair, resting his arms behind his head as he continued to go on and on about how Logan would be the _best_ Theatre teacher. 

He knew he entered a fight he couldn’t win but him teaching Theatre? What kind of alternate universe was this?!

“And the pay for your time will be added on to your income as well,” Charles concluded and Logan let out a heavy sigh, knowing he was going to regret the next words he spoke.

“Alright, I’ll do it. But just this once and if this shit happens again, I’m quitting.” Charles chuckled at his half-empty threat and Logan left his office and stalked back to his classroom. When LeBeau got back from his honeymoon, Logan was surely going to kill him.

***

Erik stared blankly at the student across from him, checking his watch for the fifth time in the past two minutes to see it was still ten minutes after school and he was not getting paid for his time right now and to top everything off, the student wasn’t talking.

“What seems to be the problem, Alex?” Erik asked for the third time, hoping this time he received an answer. “Your grades are fine, GPA is above average, I don’t see the need for you to be in my office.”

Erik bit his tongue as Alex looked up at him, more of a glare really, and crossed his arms over his chest. “My brother.”

“That requires the guidance counselor’s advice, not mine.” 

“I need to do an extracurricular or else my brother will sign me up for….Boy Scouts,” he visibly cringed and Erik hummed in understanding.

“Aren’t you a bit old to be in Scouts?” Alex shrugged; Erik wasn’t sure if he truly didn’t know or he didn’t care, probably the latter. “Well this school has a lot of things to offer, what interests do you have?” Another shrug and Erik turned to his computer, trying to find something that suited Alex’s interests, if he even had any. “Chess club?” He suggested and Alex shook his head. “Track?”

“No.”

“Why not? My son is on there and he loves it,” Erik boasted, a hint of a smile playing at his lips.

“Yeah, I know. I don’t like your son,” Alex grumbled and Erik shrugged, that was fair.

“Well the only option left is the school play. It never hurts to dabble in a little acting.”

Alex scoffed. “You’re joking, right?” 

“Those are the only three after school activities that seem to be available. Take your pick or have fun collecting badges in Boy Scouts,” he teased, receiving yet another glare from Alex.

“Fine, I’ll do the stupid school play.”

Erik forced a fake smile. “Great. Sign up sheet is outside of the theatre. Know where that is?” Alex rolled his eyes and nodded, grabbing his book bag and slinging it over his shoulder. 

As Alex was leaving, Peter came right on in, waving at Alex and grinning at Erik.

“Hey Havok,” he greeted to Alex, who looked like he was about to stab him.

“Don’t call me that,” Alex growled as he brushed past Peter. Peter shrugged off the encounter and plopped down in the chair Alex was just sitting in.

“What’s up, Daddio?”

“Shouldn’t you be at practice?” Erik scolded, turning to his computer to clear out his emails for the day and do whatever work he had to do before leaving.

“It got cancelled.” Erik shot Peter a look then and Peter groaned. “Okay fine, I ditched, but with very good reason.”

“Which would be-?”

“It got boring. Coach keeps making us run and jump hurdles over and over again and I can do that in my sleep! I want to do something fun and exciting for a change, you know?”

Erik nodded, his eyes wandering back to his computer screen. “How about the school play?” He teased, knowing Peter would never want to do something like that. He never expressed interest in doing anything outside of running and video games.

“Dad, you’re a genius!”

Erik looked back at his son, confused. “Peter, I was kidding.”

“But that’s like the best idea ever! I’m trying out for the school play!” Peter enthused as he jumped out of his seat and raced over to Erik, giving him an enormous hug. “I’ll see you at home! We can run lines together!” He sped out of his office then and Erik sighed. Well, he hadn’t seen Peter that excited since he bought him a year's supply of Twinkies last Hanukkah. That had to be a sign, right?

***

Alex stared up at the sign up sheet like he was signing his life away. Would Boy Scouts really be _that bad_? He would be in the woods, have to bond with other people….

He shrugged his backpack off and dug around for a pen, feeling nauseated as he signed his name up on the list. Alex didn’t even know what the school play was about or let alone knew his school even did plays. He knew they had a Theatre class, but Alex never signed up for it or knew anyone in it.

“Havok!”

“Ah shit,” Alex sighed as he turned to see Peter racing towards him. Quickly, he shoved his pen in his bag and kept his head down low as he started to walk away.

“Hey, wait!” Peter called out and before Alex knew it, he felt an arm on his shoulder and halted; damn Lehnsherr’s kid was fast. “Did I just see you signing up for the play?”

“Unfortunately,” he muttered.

“Awesome! I’m signing up for the play too because track is starting to get _really_ boring.”

“Great,” Alex replied unenthusiastically, not caring at all.

But of course, Peter continued to follow him and talk his ear off.

“I just love plays, you know? My dad doesn’t know but sometimes when I read, I read plays because plays are really fun and dramatic and funny. You like plays? Well, of course you do since you wouldn’t be signing up for them otherwise,” he laughed and Alex wondered if Lehnsherr would kill him if he socked his kid in the throat. “Romeo and Juliet is my favorite though and I’m glad that the school is putting that one on versus Cats, but then again, Cats is a musical, not a play. Have you seen Cats?”

“No,” Alex lied, wanting the conversation to cease. The only reason he saw _Cats_ was because Scott was a theatre-junkie when he wasn’t going on and on about Boy Scouts and soup. 

“Me either, so I’m glad we’re putting on Romeo and Juliet. I would love to be Romeo but I’ll be excited to get any part, you know?”

Alex halted again, turning to look at Peter fully this time. “Did you say Romeo and Juliet?”

“Yeah, that’s the play we gotta perform.”

Oh fuck. If Alex knew that the school play was Romeo and Juliet, he would’ve never signed up for it! Maybe he should try his luck with chess, or track even. Hell, Boy Scouts sounded more appealing than Romeo and Juliet!

“Hey man, are you okay? You look a little pale,” Peter frowned and Alex realized he’d been staring at the kid with his jaw slacked open for at least a couple of minutes.

“I-I gotta go.” 

Alex pushed past Peter then and started to run down the hallways, not seeming to pay attention as he ran face first into a locker door.

“Fuck!” He hollered, clutching at his nose and leaning back as he felt the pain starting to spread along with some blood.

“Oh my god! Are you alright?” Alex recognized that voice and he tilted his head up to see it was that kid from his Chemistry class. Alex didn’t know his actual name, he only called him Bozo since he was a Grade A Teacher’s Pet, and was frankly too smart to be in high school. “Alex?”

“What?” Alex barked, sounding nasally. “How do you know my name?”

“You ran face first into my locker and that’s your question?” Alex saw that Bozo was smiling and Alex simply rolled his eyes. “And you’re in my Chemistry class, of course I know who you are. And um, wait right here, I’ll be right back,” he excused.

Alex leaned up against one of the closed lockers next to Bozo’s, sinking down to the floor as he kept his head tilted back and his hand firmly on his nose. Leave it up to him to run face first into a locker, that will be a fun one to explain to Scott.

Bozo returned seconds later with a paper towel in hand, crouching down to Alex’s level and handing it to him. Alex pressed it against his nose and Bozo made about three more trips to the bathroom until Alex’s bleeding stopped.

“Would you mind if I looked at it?” Alex made a weird face at the question. “To assess it, I mean. I’m planning to be a doctor so,” he explained as he gave Alex a small smile. 

“Yeah, whatever.” Alex moved the paper towel away from his nose, wincing at the amount of dried blood he saw. He let Bozo look at his nose for more than a minute or so and Alex kept his gaze focused on the ground. Bozo was too close to him for his comfort level, but to make the situation less awkward than it was, he kept his gaze on the ground. “Is it broken?”

“No, but it’s surely going to be tender for a couple of days.” Bozo stepped back and reached his hand out for Alex, which he took as he was helped pulled up. “I’m really sorry that happened though but if you don’t mind me asking, how come you were running?”

“Just wanted to get home.” Bozo nodded in understanding. Alex should really stop calling him that but he didn’t know his name. “Thank you though, for helping.”

“Yeah of course and they tell us to not run in the hallways for a reason, you know,” he teased and Alex let out a faint laugh.

“Yeah well, I wasn’t expecting a locker to be open.”

Bozo shrugged. “I wasn’t expecting anyone to run into it,” he laughed fully. “But be careful next time, okay?”

“I’ll try. See you in Chem.” Alex gave a nod as he turned around, smiling to himself. He didn’t know why, but he was.

“See you, Alex.”

***

Scott was humming to himself as he stirred his large pot of soup, throwing in pinches of salt every now and then to get the right taste. He loved soup and he always tried out new recipes too. Right now, he was making a cream of potato soup that he knew he was going to love, and hoped Alex did too. If he didn’t, well, more soup for Scott!

He heard the front door close and Scott smiled to himself.

“How was school?” He called out, hearing Alex’s footsteps walk closer. “Would to try some-What happened to your nose?!” Scott abandoned the stove completely and walked over to him, taking his face in his hands. “Did someone hit you? I swear if you got in another fight then I will have to tell Mom and Dad and then it will lead to them saying that you moving in with me was a horrible idea,” he rambled and Alex rolled his eyes.

“No one hit me, I just ran into a locker.”

Scott knitted his eyebrows together and frowned. “How did you do that?”

“I was running, not paying attention, and someone had their locker door open and I hit it. I’m fine though, just had a bloody nose,” he moved out of Scott’s grip and went over to the freezer, grabbing a bag of frozen vegetables and resting it against his nose. “It hurts like a bitch.”

“Language,” he scolded as he went back to his soup, lowering the temperature on the stove. “And what were you doing running in the hallway anyway?”

“Long story.”

“Were there kids chasing you?” Scott flashed him a concerned look at Alex rolled his eyes again. “Alex, if you keep rolling your eyes, they’re going to end up on the floor.”

“Scott, no kids were chasing me, alright? People are nice at this school, too nice really.”

“Good to hear,” Scott smiled at him then and looked back at his soup, giving it another taste before throwing some pepper in there. “Doesn’t answer the question, though. Why were you running?” He persisted, receiving yet another groan from Alex.

“Because this kid kept pestering me about stuff and I got a little annoyed so I said I had to go,” he explained and Scott laughed.

“Maybe he wants to be your friend, you could use some of those.”

“Gee thanks,” Alex snapped.

“I’m just saying, it doesn’t hurt to have friends. That’s why when you join Boy Scouts, you will meet a bunch of boys your age, maybe younger, and get to be friends with them,” he enthused to Alex’s unhappy look.

“I’m not joining Boy Scouts. I signed up for an after school activity instead.”

Scott turned the stove off and looked at Alex fully, intrigued. “Oh really? What did you sign up for?”

“Well, there were only three options and they all sucked, so I picked the one that sucked the least.” Scott gestured for Alex to go on. “It was either track, chess club, or the school play. So I chose the school play.”

Scott cocked an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Really. It’s Romeo and Juliet.”

Scott’s eyes widened in excitement and he heard a squeal, it most likely came from him. “Alex! That’s amazing! What role do you want?” Alex shrugged. “I bet you could be Romeo! You would make a really good Romeo too. You know, when I was your age, I was Romeo in my school’s play,” he sighed happily, reminiscing on the memory. “I’ll help you prepare and everything!”

“Thanks, but I don’t have high hopes.”

“Oh nonsense! I’ll help you nail down Romeo better than Shakespeare! I’ll be like your acting coach!”

“Why not go the extra mile and help produce the thing to?” Alex chuckled and Scott gasped.

“Alex, that is an excellent idea! Who’s the teacher in charge? I’ll have to write them an email!” Alex shook his head and left the kitchen, leaving Scott alone to rejoice. He would be at Alex’s school tomorrow and find out everything about the play that he could!


	2. Act I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Scenes I-V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, it's the next chapter.
> 
> This fic is farrrrrr from a slow burn so expect things to move pretty quickly. A little background about some characters is touched on and some possible crushes ;) Some are not as obvious...
> 
> Anyway, hope ya'll enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!!!

_Scene I_

Alex was half awake when he walked into Chemistry the next morning. Scott was talking his ear off for the rest of the day about Shakespeare and forced, yes forced, Alex to watch every single installment of _Romeo and Juliet_ ever made. Did Scott own every DVD version of it? Yes, yes he did.

It wasn’t until the third movie that Scott realized how late it was, sending a dozing off Alex upstairs to bed. It was almost two in the morning by the time Alex had actually fallen asleep and he had only gotten four hours of sleep before his alarm went off. Thankfully, he did all his homework during the first movie Scott showed him, so he didn’t have to worry about schoolwork.

Getting through school, on the other hand, was a different story.

Well if he failed any of his classes, he would blame Scott since it was kind of Scott’s fault. He was the one who pushed Alex to watch the movies so he could get a better understanding of Romeo. Alex wanted to tell Scott to chill out because he wasn’t even sure when auditions were! He should probably find that out, but he was too tired at the moment to really care.

Alex dragged his feet towards the back of the classroom, which was remotely empty thankfully, and plopped down at one of the back tables. He threw his backpack to the ground and rested his arms on the table, letting his head rest on them as he closed his eyes.

He could honestly fall asleep right in the middle of class without a care in the world, but he heard feet approaching him and Alex’s eyes quickly snapped open, fearing that it could possibly be his teacher to scold him.

When he opened his eyes, it wasn’t the teacher at all, it was Bozo. Bozo was giving Alex a small smile and looked way too cheery for Alex’s liking this morning. He was also holding a styrofoam cup in his hands that possibly had coffee in it and Alex glared at the cup enviously.

“Anyone sitting next to you?” Bozo asked and Alex shot him a look. Couldn’t he tell they were in a near empty classroom?

“Um, no?”

“May I sit next to you?” Bozo followed up and Alex nodded, moving his bag out of Bozo’s walking space so he could get through. “How’s your nose feeling?” He set his cup down and Alex groaned as he smelled the coffee aroma coming from it, really wondering what he could do to get his hands on it. “That bad, huh? Sorry again that happened, but really Alex, watch where you’re going,” he rambled on as he sat down next to Alex, taking out his books and binders.

“I’ll try,” he yawned, his eyes going over to the clock to see he had twenty minutes still before class started. Maybe he could get some sleep in.

“You alright?” Bozo questioned with concern and Alex groaned again, knowing his ear would be talked off. Bozo and Peter would make real good friends, he should introduce them to each other.

“Tired,” Alex mumbled. “Didn’t sleep till at least two.”

“In the morning?” Alex made a noise of recognition, too tired to acknowledge Bozo properly. “How come?”

Alex sighed heavily and ran a hand through his still dampened hair. He took a cold, very cold shower this morning and was he woken up at all? Not one bit and it sucked. If he wasn’t so tired, he would’ve killed Scott this morning with a spoon. “My lovely brother,” he replied to Bozo sarcastically. “He thought it would be fun to watch every single movie with the exact same plot.”

“Yikes, I’m sorry you had to go through that. Was there any particular reason or was he doing it for fun?”

“He thought it would help me, I guess.”

“With-?”

“The play,” he said with dread, turning his head to look at Bozo fully. Bozo’s eyes were wide and he had a very big smile on his face. This couldn’t be good.

“The school play?” Alex gave the quickest of nods and he had never seen a smile so big on anyone’s face than he did right now. “I’m auditioning for the school play too! What role do you want? I’m shooting for Romeo because you know, you get to kiss the Juliet,” he smirked and Alex snorted, knowing which role he _didn’t_ want. “Which role do you want?” Bozo asked again and Alex shrugged.

“Don’t care, honestly. Just doing it to get out of Boy Scouts with my brother.” 

“I’m in Boy Scouts!” Bozo enthused and Alex shook his head, of course he was. “Well, I was but I only did it for about a week when I was eight and I hated it. I don’t mind the outdoors, but it was during allergy season so that did not mix well. And some of the boys weren’t the nicest either so that didn’t help,” he sighed, clearly bringing up an old wound he didn’t want to share. “Anyway, I’m glad you don’t get to do that and you know, if you want, we can run lines together before auditions on Friday,” Bozo offered and Alex sat up straight.

“Friday? As in _tomorrow_ Friday?” Bozo nodded. Could this day get any worse?

“Yeah, Friday after school in the auditorium. I’m free at lunch and after school today if you want to go over lines together.” Bozo offered again and Alex nodded, catching a glimpse at one of the assignments peeking out of his binders.

The name written across the top of the sheet was Hank McCoy. He wasn’t surprised as the name didn’t ring a bell, but then again, Alex wasn’t friends with anyone at this school and only knew people’s names if they were talked about or very annoying. It ended up being the latter since a lot of kids got on Alex’s nerves, maybe that was why he didn’t have any friends.

“Sure,” Alex agreed finally to Hank’s offer, “why not?”

“Great! Is after school in the library today work for you?” Alex nodded and Hank beamed. “Okay cool.”

“Cool,” Alex repeated, not knowing how to feel about it. It surely didn’t make him and Hank friends, he wanted to clarify that, but he didn’t want to sound like a dick either. And he was going to see Hank later too and he did need to run lines too. Looked like he was going to have to keep his thoughts to himself, for now.

_Scene II_

Erik was nursing his cup of coffee as he heard a knock on his office door. It was twenty minutes into the first period so he knew it couldn’t be a student, so it had to be a staff member. Hopefully it was a staff member he liked...which was very few of them.

“Come in,” he called out, keeping his gaze focused on his computer screen as he heard his door open.

“He jests at scars that never felt a wound. But soft! What light through yonder window breaks?”  
Erik sighed heavily, swiveling his chair to see Peter was now in his office, continuing to spew lines of Shakespeare. Today was going to be a long day. “It is my lady, O, it is my love!” Peter gushed at Erik’s floor lamp as he grabbed it and pulled it close to him.

“Peter,” he snapped at his son and Peter looked at him with confusion.

“My dear man, my nameth is not Peter for it is Romeo Montague. Son of Montague and Lady Montague, soon to be husband of Juliet Capulet, the love of my life. The one who makes the heart flutter. The one-”

“Peter Maximoff, is there a reason why you are not in your History class right now? I’m sure Mr. Howlett would not appreciate you not hearing his lesson on the French Revolution.”

“American Revolution,” Peter corrected as he broke his character, “and Howlett doesn’t give two shits about anyone.” He flopped himself down in the chair across from Erik’s desk, starting to pick at the hole in his jeans. “And I already submitted an absent call from you so no harm no foul, Pops.”

Erik’s eyes went wide. “You did _what_?!”

“I pretended to be you, Moira couldn’t tell. She also said that you owe her five dollars for coffee from last Tuesday,” he said nonchalantly, not noticing the death glare Erik was giving him. 

“I’m going to call Mr. Howlett and tell him that you’re purposefully ditching his class if you do not get out of my office,” Erik warned and Peter sat upright, his eyes wide.

“You wouldn’t.”

Erik picked up the phone. “I’ll recall Moira and tell her that you’re at school and, because I love you, I’m going to write you a pass. Deal?”

“But Dad,” Peter whined, “I need to run lines! Auditions are tomorrow!”

“And we will have all the time at home to practice,” Erik set the phone down and quickly wrote and signed Peter a slip, handing it to him. “Go.”

“Fine,” Peter groaned and got his things, taking the slip from him. “Can we practice at lunch too?” Erik nodded and received an eager grin from Peter before he raced out of his office.

Shaking his head to himself, Erik quickly called Moira and informed her of the situation, which she laughed off, and got into doing some actually work.

Well, he did some work for a few minutes before he heard his office door open.

“Peter, I will not hesitate to email all your teachers and-Oh, Principal Xavier,” Erik turned his head as he saw it was not his son who entered his room, but his boss. “Something I can help you with?”

Principal Xavier smiled warmly at him as he closed the door behind him. “I have a question for you, a nonprofessional one.” Erik sucked in a breath, weirdly feeling nervous by the question, but gestured for him to continue. “As you may be aware, or you may not be I’m not sure, I-”

“Charles, I’ve been wanting to say something for years,” Erik blurted, knowing what he was about to say.

“You have?” Confusion swarmed over his face and Erik nodded. “Like what?”

“About the obvious tension of course. I noticed it when I first applied here and you gave me the job and I felt like there was something between us. Over the years, it seemed to grow too. From sitting next to me at staff meetings, and-” Erik looked at the stoic expression on his face and felt himself blush as he realized what he had done. “-you’re talking about something else, aren’t you?”

Principal Xavier gave a slow nod and Erik felt his mouth go dry. Whoops. “I was wondering if it was a good idea to have Mr. Howlett be the one to put on the play.”

“Right,” Erik breathed out and turned his attention to his computer screen, staring at it blankly. “I think it was a good idea. Logan is great with...teaching.” Erik didn’t want to gossip or anything, but he knew students did not like Logan as a teacher and personally, Erik saw him as an asshole. Peter didn’t mind him though, but Erik knew he was afraid of him and he really couldn’t blame him.

“Good, good. Just have the smallest bits of doubt, you know?” Erik nodded at Xavier’s words, watching out of the corner of his eye as he left. It was a weird conversation to say the least and Erik didn’t blame him for wanting to leave either. Maybe he should give Peter permission to start meddling in his personal life, after all, he did express an interest in it in the past, maybe it didn’t hurt to have him try now.

_Scene III_

Hank wasn’t a bad student, truly he wasn’t. He always paid attention in class, always did his homework, studied, anything really when it came to school. But during English, well...Hank couldn’t help not paying attention. He was way too focused on what was happening after school with regards to running his lines. He _needed_ to get the part of Romeo and if anyone else got it, Hank just might cry.

Okay he wouldn’t really cry, but he would be very upset to find out he wouldn’t be the one kissing Raven and watch someone else who wasn’t him kiss her instead. It was ridiculous in a way, to go out of his way to join the school play in order to be closer with his crush, but this was a big step for Hank. Usually when he had a crush, which wasn’t that frequent, he would always keep to himself and never truly pursue them.

He changed his tune once senior year rolled around.

He told himself that he would be the most confident version of himself he could be. Granted he was still awkward, but he would be confidently awkward. Seeing himself in higher regards made things a whole lot easier when it came to Raven too. He had been crushing on her since freshman year and he needed to make his move before college! He wondered what school Raven was going to and hoped she was going to Harvard like him. That would truly put his dream life into play: Marry Raven, who Hank was certain was the one for him, graduate with highest honors, become a doctor, and live happily ever after! 

And the way to start this dream was to kiss Raven in the school play and make her realize how great of a guy Hank was. He doesn’t mean to sound arrogant or toot his own horn, but Hank was a nice, sweet, and smart guy. How could Raven not like him?

Well, after tomorrow when Hank swooped everyone away with his awesome line reading and showing that he was born to play this part, Raven will absolutely swoon over him. He will whisk her away with his words, just like how Romeo himself did with Juliet.

He sighed with contentment as he thought about kissing Raven. Her lips were probably as soft as they looked and Hank wondered what they tasted like. Would they be sweet like the smell of her perfume? Or spicy like her personality?

The clearing of a throat brought Hank out of his thoughts as he realized he was still in school, and still in fourth period English. The best time to daydream was during English afterall. It was one of Hank’s best subjects, minus Chemistry of course, and it didn’t require much attention. He was good at all subjects really, but he would never not pay attention in History. Mr. Howlett would have his head on a stake before Hank could even try to have his mind focused on something outside of the lesson.

“McCoy,” the temporary sub, who was Hank’s official least favorite person ever, hissed his name to get him to focus on the lesson. His usual English teacher, Miss. Marie as she liked her students to call her, was out on her honeymoon with the Theatre teacher, Mr. LeBeau. They were together for quite some time according to other students, and some kids were waiting for them to get married. Some of them even were betting on it, but those could be rumors.

The bell rang before Hank could react to the temporary sub’s comment and grabbed his things and quickly left. History was only a couple classrooms down the hall and with the ten minute passing time they were given, he always arrived there early. Hank didn’t mind being early though, he was usually punctual, but he felt a little awkward sometimes sitting in the room alone with Mr. Howlett.

Mr. Howlett didn’t talk or show much emotion, and come to think of it, he didn’t really seem that passionate about teaching history either. Hank couldn’t blame him though since history was a tad boring sometimes, but if he did teach it, he had to enjoy some of it, right?

Maybe Hank would ask him about the play, yeah that was what he would do.

As he made his way to the classroom, he saw Alex at his locker, staring into it blankly. Hank must’ve been staring too long since Alex caught his gaze and Hank gave him a small smile and waved. Alex gave a small wave back and a nod before he closed his locker and walked in the other direction.

Hank shrugged off the encounter as he entered History class, seeing he was the first student to arrive and noticed Mr. Howlett was looking over some papers on his desk. “Hello,” Hank greeted in a friendly manner, taking his usual seat right up front, closest to the window.

Mr. Howlett looked up briefly before back down at his desk. “Hi McCoy.”

“Auditions are tomorrow, are you excited?” Mr. Howlett let out a huff that sounded like it could possibly be a laugh as he looked at Hank again, wondering if he was serious or not.

“Sure.”

“Well, I’m excited,” Hank carried on despite his teacher’s lack of interest. He was excited though-excited to run lines with Alex and absolutely nail Romeo tomorrow too. He couldn’t wait to see how impressed Raven would be with him!

The conversation ceased then, which Mr. Howlett seemed fine by and Hank didn’t mind either. He enjoyed the silence in the spare minutes he had left before the class commenced and took the time to read even more of Romeo’s lines. He already had the first two acts memorized at this point and Mr. Howlett would be a fool to not cast Hank as Romeo.

In the back of his mind though, Hank did have a fear that someone else could potentially be Romeo. It sounded selfish and horrible, but he really, _really_ hoped that no one got the part. He was thankful Alex didn’t quite care about which role he got, but that didn’t mean other students weren’t. 

Pushing that thought away as the bell rang, Hank slipped his copy of _Romeo and Juliet_ in his backpack and swapped it out with his history books. He was relieved to find out that they were only watching a movie today, and Mr. Howlett did seem focused on something else anyway, so it was an easy day. Hank had to take notes, but still, he wasn’t complaining.

When the movie was over, which it was by the time class got out, Hank was the first to head out of the room and go straight to the library. He sat at one of the tables near the entrance so Alex could easily find him. Maybe he should’ve gotten Alex’s number in Chemistry so he could text him where he was; he made a mental note to get it by the end of their session. 

Hank didn’t know much about Alex, outside of him being pretty smart and was a transfer student. He came to the school at the very end of junior year which Hank thought was an odd time to transfer, but here he was. Hank didn’t talk to him much then since he rarely saw him and had no classes with him. That all changed though when senior year rolled around and Hank had classes with him and got time to...observe him. It was creepy to say but Hank did observe him since there was a bit of gossip going on about Alex.

Lots of students say that Alex was kicked out of his old school for beating another student to death, but Hank didn’t think it could be true. From what he’s seen of Alex, he seems like a nice guy. Maybe as they got to know each other more, they could be friends. Hank had a fair share of friends, only a few close ones and that was all he needed really, but he never saw Alex hang out with anyone. Perhaps he was the loner type since Hank did sort of get that vibe from him, but nonetheless, Hank would try to be his friend, especially since they were going to be in the school play together.

He escaped his thoughts as he saw Alex enter the library and he quickly caught Hank’s gaze as he approached the table he was sitting at. “Hey,” Alex addressed as he sat across from Hank, putting his backpack in one of the empty chairs next to him.

“Hey. Ready to get your lines on?” Hank smirked and Alex snorted.

“So you’re a theatre dork?” Hank shrugged, digging his book out again. “There’s nothing wrong with it or anything, my brother’s really into this kind of stuff,” Alex explained. “Like as soon as I mentioned I was auditioning for the play, he got super excited. It was weird.”

“I mean plays are exciting,” Hank said nonchalantly as he looked at Alex fully. “And this one is a classic too.”

Alex shrugged himself. “I guess. I think it’s stupid in a way, you know?” Hank frowned, not knowing what he meant and Alex must’ve picked up on it since he continued talking. “Like these kids, younger than you and I, fell in love from looking at each other. Then all this shit goes down in less than a week and then they get married and die. Like, their death united the families so why not come clean since the marriage probably could’ve united the families too?”

Hank hummed, leaning back in his chair. “Not necessarily. It possibly would’ve led to the same outcome where they planned to run away together. The ending is inevitable.” Alex shook his head. “Why do you disagree?”

“Stuff like that isn’t inevitable, Hank,” he stated rather flatly. “If they came clean to their parents, they could have avoided a lot of problems.”

“Their families were feuding.”

“Yeah and? It might bring them together versus their death. And besides,” Alex slumped back in his own chair as well, “no one likes their in-laws completely.”

Hank chuckled. “That’s true, but if the problems that happened in the story didn’t happen, then it wouldn’t be a story.”

Alex scoffed. “Yeah it would, it would be a better one. What’s the point of writing a romance if it’s going to end in tragedy?” He shook his head as if he was answering his own question, and Hank had to admit, he did have a point.

“You sound like a hopeless romantic.”

“I’m just saying,” he muttered as he stared down at his hands, starting to pick at his cuticles. 

“Well, they were infatuated with each other anyway so I guess one can’t really classify it as love,” Hank added in a wondrous tone. 

“That’s true,” Alex agreed. 

Hank nodded and opened his book up, placing it in the center of the table since Alex didn’t seem to have a copy of his own. “Anyway, are you ready to do some line reading? You can go first,” he slid the book towards him more and Alex stared at it blankly.

“What should I read?”

“First act, first scene. Romeo makes some speech about Rosaline,” Hank suggested and Alex nodded, flipping to the page before starting to read.

“Alas, that love, whose view is muffled still, should, without eyes, see pathways to his will!” Alex started and Hank was pretty sure his jaw was on the table now. He could not believe how _perfect_ Alex read those lines like Hank didn’t even read the lines that well himself! Should he be worried that Alex could potentially outshine him? “Yet tell me not-What?” Alex’s bluntness took Hank out of his thoughts as he realized he was staring at Alex with his mouth hanging open, looking like an idiot.

“Where-How-Why do you read so well?” Hank stumbled, receiving a weird look from Alex. Hank cleared his throat, realizing what he said didn’t make any sense. “Alex,” he tried again, “where did you learn to read lines like that?”

“I’m just reading as they’re written, why?”

Was Alex being serious right now? _How_ did Alex not know how good he sounded? “You sound like a professional actor,” Hank awed and Alex laughed. “I’m serious! Where did you learn to read like that?” Hank pestered, his skin starting to feel hot as he became nervous. With Alex in the running, he wasn’t sure if he even stood a chance.

“Um nowhere. I mean, I guess I took a cue or two from watching a lot of movies last night, but that’s about it,” he replied as if what just happened was nothing. “Why you being so weird about it?”

“I’m not being weird,” Hank retorted as he wiped his now sweaty palms on his thighs, “I’m really impressed, that’s all. Look,” he let out a steady breath, “you’re really good, Alex. Whether you believe it or not, you’re _really_ good. I’m pretty sure you could get Romeo.”

Alex made a noise of disgust. “No thanks, I don’t want to be the lead of the play,” Hank breathed a sigh of relief at the news, “and you want that spot anyway. Knowing you want it, I’m not going to take it.” Hank gave him a small smile as relief continued to flood through him.

“Thanks, that’s really nice of you.” Alex nodded and Hank dug out his notebook and pen, ripping out a sheet and writing down his phone number. “Here,” Hank slid him the paper, “I meant to give this to you this morning but if you ever want to rehearse together or anything, just let me know.” Alex’s eyes flickered between Hank’s face and the paper before he took the paper and shoved it in his pocket.

“I-I should go though. Sorry,” Alex flashed an apologetic smile as he stood up and grabbed his bag. “I didn’t tell my brother I was staying after school and he’s a little overprotective so I should get home before he gets worried or anything.”

“I understand. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” Alex gave a quick wave before he sped out of the library. Again, Hank shrugged off the encounter and continued to read Romeo’s lines, again.

He did all his homework during lunch and he didn’t have any English or History homework which meant he had the rest of today to read through the play. He was still a little nervous at how good Alex was, but maybe Alex would get casted as someone else, like Benvolio or Mercutio. 

“Wow, you’re really reading that thing.” Hank’s head snapped up as he heard the voice, his cheeks immediately flushing as he looked up at who it was.

“Raven,” he breathed out, “what are you doing here?”

“Waiting for Charles-Principal Xavier or whatever to get done with his meeting,” Raven said rather annoyed at the mention of her brother, sitting in the seat Alex was at. “You?”

“I was reading lines with Alex but he had to go.”

Raven’s eyebrow lifted in the air and her green eyes went a little wide at the mention of his name. “Alex Summers?” Hank nodded. “Why are you hanging out with him?” Raven’s question came off a little nasty sounding to Hank, but he brushed that aside.

“He’s nice.” Raven’s nose turned up as she made a displeased face.

“He’s crazy,” she disputed. “Haven’t you heard what happened at his last school?”

“Those are just rumors,” Hank dismissed, not wanting to gossip about Alex.

“I’d be careful if I were you. Alex Summers is only trouble.” Raven’s phone dinged before Hank could respond and she shot up and out of her seat. “Gotta go! See you in Chemistry!” Raven disappeared quickly and Hank simply shook his head.

Hank had never believed school rumors and he certainly wasn’t going to believe the ones about Alex either. And even if they were true, who was Hank to judge? He didn’t know the full story or even _if_ Alex beat a kid to death and Hank wasn’t going to ask him either. He wanted to be Alex’s friend and believing school rumors was definitely not going to get in his way of that.

_Scene IV_

Scott happily strolled into Alex’s schools after hours and began to make his way to the principal’s office. He hoped Alex wouldn’t mind him coming into his school randomly, but it was Alex’s idea to help with the school play anyway so he had no reason to be mad right? Right.

He approached Principal Xavier’s office and knocked on the door, hearing a muffled “Come in” before he put his hand on the door handle and opened it up, seeing Principal Xavier looked a little stressed, but nonetheless his usual cheerful self. “Mr. Summers, it’s lovely to see you again,” Principal Xavier greeted with a warm smile and a handshake which Scott was very willing to return. “Something I can help you with?”

“Yes actually,” Scott cleared his throat, not wanting to seem too eager, “Alex has informed me that he will be auditioning for the school play,” the news took Principal Xavier a bit by surprise by the slight widening of his eyes as Scott continued, “and I was wondering if there was any way I could help out? I know I’m not completely qualified to be a teacher or anything but since the school play is an _after_ school activity, I figured it would be alright if I helped out? With your permission of course,” he smiled and Principal Xavier beamed.

“That would be wonderful! It never hurts to have a helping hand.” Scott felt his shoulders relax, not realizing how worried he would be if he said no! “I believe the man directing the play is still here. His classroom is down the hall and to the right, pass two classrooms and his will be the third. He will help you with regards to your tasks and all.”

“Great,” Scott grinned. “Thank you again and it was nice to see you.” He gave a small wave before leaving his office and began to speed walk his way to the teacher’s room. Scott was still a bit nervous as he approached the room but why would someone refuse help? Even the control freak Scott was himself wouldn’t refuse help from someone.

He found the classroom door open and stepped inside, halting in the doorway. The teacher was oblivious to his entry and thankful he was since Scott was probably looking at the male like he had seen a ghost and in a way, it felt like he had. 

“Logan?” Scott barely breathed as a small smile started to form. Logan was his old roommate from college and Scott hadn’t seen him in _years_. He was the roommate Scott had his senior year and he rarely seen him even then, hence the ghost reference. Sometimes Scott thought Logan was dead considering how little he saw of him yet here he was, alive and well. He wished he could say they had gotten along, but when Logan was around, he was annoyed by Scott and his neatness and Scott was annoyed by, well, by Logan.

Logan’s head snapped up from what he was doing and his expression was blank, as it usually was, as he looked over at Scott. “Slim?” He called him by the name he had given Scott after about a month of knowing him and Scott absolutely hated the name, which Logan knew. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you-I mean, to help out with the school play and Principal Xavier told me to come here so I did.” Scott walked further into the room and closer to Logan’s desk, really taking in his appearance. Logan looked like he hadn’t aged a day. He was more muscular sure, had a bit of stubble, and was probably still as stubborn as ever. “I didn’t know you worked here, Alex never mentioned having you as a teacher or anything,” he added.

“Alex is your brother?” Scott nodded. “Explains a lot,” the other man breathed out and Scott wasn’t sure what to make of that, so he brushed the comment aside. “You wanna help with the play?”

Scott nodded. “Ever since Alex mentioned it, I was interested and I just spoke with Principal Xavier and he said it was alright, and I’m hoping it’s alright with you too? If not, it’s alright and I completely understand, I shouldn’t get my hopes up or anything.”

Logan faintly laughed and shook his head, his eyes nearly shining as he looked at Scott. “You haven’t changed one bit.”

“Thank you?” Scott made a weird face at the possibly backhanded compliment and shook his head. “Anyway, am I allowed to help you?”

“Sure. Be at the school tomorrow by three. Go to the auditorium, that’s where the auditions will be held.” Scott made a mental note of that as he nodded at Logan’s words. “And I don’t know shit about theatre but you do so have fun I guess.”

“Then why are you in charge?” He blurted before he realized it, thinking he sounded rude but Logan didn’t seem affected by his words.

“Because Remy thought it would be a good idea to leave for his honeymoon and Chuck thought I would be the most qualified.”

“Well you should be honored,” Scott enthused and Logan looked at him dryly. “I would love to be a teacher, especially in regards to theatre.”

Logan grunted. “Yeah, I know.”

Scott bit down on his tongue, avoiding saying any rude comments that came to his mind. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow then.” He gave Logan one last look before leaving his classroom and walking out of the school. He knew it was probably a very, extremely bad idea to have him and Logan in the same room, working together, but Scott could do this. He always wanted to be more involved with theatre, after all it was his college major, but Scott had never been given the chance to do anything with it and now he finally had the chance! He would not let Logan screw that up for him either. God he couldn’t wait to tell Alex!

_Scene V_

“What took so long?” Raven whined slightly as Charles finally made his way to their shared car. Raven had been waiting outside for the past twenty minutes since she had gotten Charles’ text, starting to get a little cold from the crisp October air.

“Someone had to talk to me last minute,” Charles flashed her an apologetic smile as he tossed Raven the car keys. “And I have a proposition for you.”

Raven groaned as she tossed her bag in the backseat and got in the driver’s side, waiting for Charles to get settled in his seat before speaking. “Am I going to like this proposition?”

“Maybe,” Charles hummed and Raven started to drive home. “There is a foreign exchange student from Russia. I volunteered you to help show him around and make him feel welcomed.”

“That’s not a proposition Charles,” she chided lightly. “And I don’t mind helping him out, I can’t help him after school tomorrow though. Play and all, remember?” She glanced at Charles to see him nod before returning her eyes to the road. “I’m going to be Juliet, I just know it.”

“I have no doubt you will be. Are your friends auditioning as well?”

Raven nodded. “Angel is because Darwin is and she really likes Darwin. And Sean is since Darwin somehow convinced him to do it so we’re all doing it together. Hank is doing it too.”

“You’re friends with Hank McCoy?” Charles said with intrigue. “He’s a very lovely boy, Raven. Extremely smart too.”

“We’re not friends, we have a class together and I ran into him a couple of times. I see him with Alex a lot which isn’t good.”

“Why not?”

Raven huffed and looked at Charles fully as she pulled up to a red light. “Because Alex is bad news. He should be in jail honestly,” she mumbled and Charles gaped at her. “What? It’s true! You know what he did at his last school.”

“And that I cannot discuss with you,” Charles sighed, proving Raven’s point.

“See? Even you know he doesn’t mean well.”

“I don’t think that,” Charles gave her a look and Raven ignored it as she looked back at the road. “Anyway, enough gossip. I have something to tell you that you might find interesting.”

Raven hummed. “Go on.”

“Erik confessed to liking me for years.”

Raven’s eyes went wide and she pulled off the road quickly and parked in a lot. She turned to look at her brother with her eyes wide. “The counselor?!” Charles nodded. “Charles, that’s awesome! What did you say?”

“I didn’t say anything. I’m not even sure if I like him back and-”

“How do you not like him back?!” She gasped, looking at him like he was crazy. “Erik is a total DILF.” Charles cringed from her words but Raven kept going. “You should at least go out with him.”

“It’s unprofessional,” Charles began and Raven tisked him. 

“But it’s _Erik_. He is hot, you should go for it.” Charles shook his head at her once more and Raven sighed. “Fine, your loss.” She started the car and got back on the road, finishing their drive home. What Charles did with his life was his business, but Raven was surely going to help him with this, she _had_ to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scott and Logan know each other, what a coincidence....or is it? 
> 
> Also am I writing Raven just a tad bitchy? Definitely but more on that will be touched on later. And look at Hank, trying to be Alex's friend, what a good kid. Speaking of Alex, more about him and his...situation...will be revealed later on. Lots of drama and angst is going to commence pretty soon so stay tuned, next chapter will be up Friday, October 25th! See you all then!!
> 
> Feel free to bug me about anything at all, love hearing from you guys :)
> 
> P.S. Follow me on tumblr for more content: amcsummersgoddess


	3. Act II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, a fast paced fic and here's some drama and angst :) it's the first of many....

_Scene I_

Hank was thrilled as he walked into school Friday morning because today was the big day! Auditions were after school today and Hank knew he was going to blow Mr. Howlett away with his audition! Hank’s goal was to get a reaction out of him, it was highly unlikely he would, but it didn’t hurt to try.

He made a quick stop at his locker to drop off his lunch and jacket before walking down the hall to Chemistry. Hank was looking forward to Chemistry today more than usual. Maybe it was the fact that he would see Raven and get a chance to talk to her...although their conversation yesterday wasn’t the best, Hank still _needed_ to talk to her. It didn’t hurt to at least since Hank was going to be kissing her after all. The least he could do was get to get to know her better. One would think after the long amount of time Hank crushed on her he would at least know something, but he doesn’t. He doesn’t know Raven quite that well but he was going to!

Another reason Hank why was looking forward to Chemistry was that he would see Alex! Alex hadn’t texted him yet or anything, not that Hank was expecting him to, but he was still going to be happy to see him. He wouldn’t say they were friends yet, but they were definitely getting there. He honestly didn’t know why he wanted to be Alex’s friend but did he really need a reason? It never hurt to make new friends and from what Hank had seen, Alex didn’t really have any from what he knew so being his friend wasn’t that big of a deal. What was a big deal was seeing Raven with someone else. The sight made Hank halt in the doorway as he stared at them without shame, trying to figure out what was going on.

There was a guy sitting next to her. He was attractive, better looking than Hank himself if he was really comparing...and he looked elated sitting next to Raven. The guy looked at her like she was a mural hanging up in a museum. He was smiling at her too, laughing at whatever she was saying, and to top everything off, Raven had her _hand_ on his _arm_. That was a touch of intimacy that could only mean one thing: They were dating.

Floods of jealousy and hurt encompassed his chest and for a moment, one little moment, Hank thought he actually had a chance with Raven. He was wrong, of course he was wrong, because Raven was having a blast with some other guy who wasn’t Hank and would never be Hank. He didn’t even recognize the guy she was with but did it even matter who it was?

“Hey,” he heard behind him, followed by a poke in his back, “you gonna move?”

Hank’s hands clenched into fists as he turned around, about to spew whatever comeback he could come up with. He was about to tell the person how rude it was to poke people, but his anger dissipated slightly as he saw Alex was behind him. Alex looked more well rested today and Hank noticed he smelled fresh too, like the ocean. His hair looked slightly damp too, making Hank conclude that Alex probably showered before school.

“Hank,” Alex said again, taking Hank out of his thoughts, “you alright?”

Hank only shrugged in reply, turning back around to give Raven and the guy a dirty look which they didn’t notice since they were way too absorbed in each other, and sulked to the back of the room. He sat in the way back, taking Alex’s now usual seat by the window, and dumped his backpack on the floor, not even bothering to unpack his things.

Alex sat down next to him, nudging Hank’s elbow to catch his attention. Once Hank looked at him, Alex started speaking. “You’re pouting like a toddler,” he commented and Hank gave him an annoyed look. “Hey man, I’m just calling it like I see it.”

“I prefer if you didn’t,” Hank muttered.

“This about Raven?”

Hank sat up fully, looking at Alex with his eyes wide. “How did you-What?” Hank licked his suddenly dry lips and felt his palms get sweaty. How did Alex know? Hank never told that little secret to anybody so how did Alex figure it out?

“You’re not that subtle. You look at her when she’s not looking a lot which is a little weird, you get all flustered when she talks to you, and you signed up for the play because of her.” Hank’s mouth fell open at Alex’s accuracy. 

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Hank jabbered out, knowing there was no use in denying it but he didn’t really know what to say.

Alex laughed faintly and shook his head. “Relax, I’m not going to tell anybody and so what if you have a crush? Who cares?”

“I care,” Hank said rather defensively. “Look Alex, I know you don’t know what it’s like but I do, okay?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Alex’s face scrunched up into confusion and Hank knew he was going to regret the next words that came out of his mouth but Hank was so angry. He shouldn’t take his anger out on other people which he never does, but his mouth moved a whole lot faster than his thoughts at the moment.

“Because you don’t have any friends.”

Alex’s jaw clenched and took a deep breath, his face swarming with hurt but quickly clouded with anger. “Yeah well, at least I’m not a dick.” He grabbed his bag as he shot Hank a nasty look and walked right out of class.

Today was horrible and it had only just begun.

_Scene II_

Erik took a deep breath as he started an email, sending it from his personal account since he did not want to risk it linked to his professional one. He was going to email Principal Xavier and clear up any misconceptions he mentioned the other day. Well, there wasn’t any misconceptions, he meant what he said, he wished he didn’t say it though.

He began to write a simple and clear statement:

_Charles,_

_I am sending this from my personal email, as you can see, since this is a personal matter._

_I would like to clear up our conversation that we had the other day. I was unaware that you were discussing Logan’s place in taking over for Remy. Personally, I do not like Logan which he knows, and one could say we have a mutual dislike for each other. Not that my personal feelings towards Logan matter, but I do believe that you made the right decision._

_I am deeply sorry that I explicitly told you that I have romantic feelings for you for quite some time now. I am very sorry if it made you uncomfortable in any way, that was not my intention. Again, I am sorry and I hope this does not damage the professional relationship we have._

_My son, Peter, as you know, gave me advice for this after I asked him and he told me to say: You are a snacc (yes, spelled that way) and I want to eat you._

_I’m not quite sure what he meant by that but I’m sure it’s nothing promoting cannibalism._

_Deeply sorry,_

_Erik_

The slamming of his office door literally made him jump in his seat and he closed out of his email and swiveled his chair around to see who made that noise. His eyes landed on Alex, who was already sitting down in the chair with his arms crossed over his chest. He was tapping his foot and looking at the ground with a glare.

Erik rubbed at his temple as he let out a heavy sigh. “First period starts in less than five minutes.” Alex remained stoic and Erik tried again. “Do you need something in regards to your schedule?” A minute went by with no reply so Erik spoke again. “Alex, you should be in class right now and unless you have something to discuss about your schedule, I have no choice but to send you out.”

Alex didn’t budge but he did take in a shaky breath. “I-I need you to switch my first period or something,” he mumbled.

“Any particular reason why?” Alex gave a quick nod but didn’t elaborate. “Is it something you need to address with a guidance counselor? Principal even?” Alex shook his head and Erik complied by pulling up Alex’s schedule. “I can move your History class to first period and have Chemistry be your second one. Does that work?” Alex nodded and Erik made the adjustments, printing out a new schedule and handing it to Alex. “I suggest getting to class, Howlett doesn’t like tardiness.” Erik waited for Alex to take the schedule from his hand but Alex didn’t move.

Erik’s fatherly instincts were kicking in and he could tell that something was very wrong here. He had a sixth sense when it came to these types of things. He knew when something was off with Peter whenever something was bothering him, and he got the same feeling as he looked at Alex.

He set the schedule down on his desk and got up from his chair, walking around the side of his desk and kneeling down to Alex’s level as he made his way in front of him. “Do you need me to call your brother?” Alex shook his head again and Erik reached his hand out, resting it on Alex’s shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. Slowly, Alex’s head lifted up and Erik could see the tears in his eyes and how his lower lip was quivering. “Would you like to talk about it?”

“I-Like you know what happened? At my last school?” Alex asked shakily and Erik nodded.

Alex’s case made Erik’s heart hurt before he even met the kid. Alex was expelled from his last school and transferred at the end of the year last year which made him different from the start. From the surface, Erik thought he was a troubled, angsty youth, but that was not the case when it came to Alex Summers. Principal Xavier had informed everyone in a staff meeting about Alex too, which from the start, Erik thought was odd. They never had meetings when it came to students but Principal Xavier insisted on having this one. Erik thought, at first, that the meeting was to warn them about Alex, but no, it was to make them _aware_ of what had happened and how the staff could be proactive about it.

At his old school, Alex was bullied heavily. Erik didn’t know the extent of Alex’s bullying or what was said or done to him directly, he only knew the outcome. The outcome was Alex beat the guy up really badly and then he was the one who got expelled while the other kid remained in school. It was horrible on the other school’s part, but it wasn’t Erik’s place to dictate how the school handled the situation; he was still very much pissed about it though.

Thankfully, Principal Xavier was much more understanding and accepted Alex into the school without batting an eye. If Erik didn’t think of him highly then, he sure did in that moment.

“I fear that it’s gonna happen again,” Alex’s sad voice took Erik out of his thoughts as he resumed his attention on Alex.

“It won’t happen again, I promise,” Erik reassured and Alex gave a small nod, moving his gaze back to the ground. “Did someone say something to you?” Alex nodded again and Erik’s gut twisted; why were kids so mean? “Is it something Principal Xavier should know about?”

“No,” he rasped out and Erik reached behind him for the box of tissues behind his desk, handing them to Alex, who took a couple. “It’s-It’s not a big deal,” he said as he wiped his eyes, meeting Erik’s gaze again.

“If it isn’t a big deal then you wouldn’t be...upset over it,” Erik pointed out lightly and Alex gave a small shrug.

“Yeah I guess,” he sighed rather heavily, adjusting himself in the chair to get more comfortable. “I just-I don’t know, I thought they were my friend or trying to at least but I guess they’re clearly not so yeah.”

Erik hummed in understanding, standing up straight and returning to his desk chair. “This person said something to you that upset you, yes?” Alex nodded. “Was it intentional?”

“I don’t know,” Alex replied, “I can’t tell the difference anymore.”

Sympathy ached in Erik’s chest and all he wanted to do was hug Alex like he would his own child, but it wouldn’t be professional. “What happened prior to them saying it?” Alex began to explain his day from the second he walked into class, to the anonymous kid he talked to, and what their conversation consisted of. Erik listened to every word Alex said and he could tell that it was appreciated. “Well,” Erik spoke up again once he was finished talking, “I believe that what happened was a mistake on their part. They were upset and took their anger out on you, which is never a good thing to do, but it’s too late now. Anyway, you can choose to forgive them or not, it’s your choice.”

“Why aren’t you the guidance counselor?” Alex blurted and Erik couldn’t help but laugh.

“I don’t know honestly, I never considered it,” he admitted. “Are you feeling better?”

“Yeah I am, thanks Mr. Lehnsherr.”

“You’re welcome,” Erik gave him a small smile as he looked down at his watch, seeing first period was almost over. “You’re welcome to stay here till the bell rings which will be shortly, and then you can go to second period. Okay?”

“Okay,” Alex agreed and Erik felt relieved in a sense. He knew Alex was going to be okay.

_Scene III_

By the time lunch had come, Alex started to feel relatively normal again. He wasn’t that upset over what Hank said as he was earlier but it still faintly lingered in the back of his mind. He wasn’t sure what he should do and after all, Mr. Lehnsherr did say it was his choice to forgive Hank or not, but Alex didn’t really want to address the issue right now. He didn’t want to deal with it since it brought up old wounds that he wasn’t really comfortable talking about yet. He could go seek out Hank if he really wanted to, but he didn’t want to. Hank was probably too busy sulking over Raven to even care about Alex right now.

Right now, Alex was sitting in the cafeteria at a table by himself, eating school fries that were way too soggy for his liking and a cheeseburger that was probably full of artificial preservatives, but it was good. He knew he should’ve packed a lunch but the only thing in the house that was premade was some of Scott’s soup and Alex was sick of eating it, and he was too lazy to make a sandwich so his only option was cafeteria food.

“Hey.” Alex left his thoughts as he looked up, a little surprised to see Hank was standing across from him. He was giving Alex a small smile and was holding a lunch tray of his own, appearing to have the same lunch choice Alex chose. “May I sit with you?”

Alex could go about this two ways: He could do his usual way and throw what Hank said back in his face, be a complete ass, and make Hank hate him. _Or_ he could say yes, hear whatever it was Hank had to say, and go from there. The first option always had Alex end up in a locker with a black eye or something of that sorts, so he went with the second.

“Sure,” he finally answered and he could literally see the wave of relief flood off of Hank as he sat down. “I wouldn’t eat the fries if I were you, they’re pretty gross.”

Hank let out a faint laugh and picked one up, looking at it droop in his grip. “Yeah, they’re not the best,” he dropped the fry down on his tray and gave Alex his full attention. “Alex, I’m really sorry about earlier,” Hank began, “and I know it’s no excuse for what I said and I’m really sorry again and I was not in a good mood which I took out on you,” he rambled and somehow Alex managed to follow along. “And you do have friends because I want to be your friend, if you want. If not, that’s perfectly okay.”

“You want to be my friend?” 

“Yes.”

Alex snorted with surprise. “Why?”

“We seem like we would be good friends. And you’re nice too, funny without meaning to be, you’re insanely talented,” he went on and Alex felt the _faintest_ heat on his cheeks. Why was he suddenly flustered by this? “We seem like we would have a lot in common, when we would get to know each other more.”

“Okay.”

Hank looked a little taken aback. “Okay? You’ll be my friend?”

Alex laughed at how elementary this all sounded. “Yes, and you’re forgiven.” Hank grinned and Alex felt something funny in his belly, but he passed off the feeling, thinking it was due to the fries. “You still doing auditions?” He asked in attempts to divert the subject.

“Yeah,” Hank sighed, “I mean I can’t back out now, I already signed up and I still want to get Romeo, maybe. Not sure.”

“Well, we could just skip,” Alex offered and Hank laughed.

“Yeah no. You thinking about skipping?”

“It crossed my mind, but I would rather be in a dress and wig than go do Boy Scouts,” he chuckled. 

“So we’ll audition together, and how about when it’s over, we can go get some real fries?”

Before Alex could answer, some girl he had never seen before came out of nowhere, followed by two more girls and four boys, one of them being Maximoff. Was Alex surprised that Hank was friends with Peter too? No, not one bit.

“What’s this I hear about auditions?” The first girl said, sitting down next to Hank with a kind of threatening looking guy sitting next to her.

“Alex and I were discussing them, Kitty,” Hank replied to her while everyone else sat down around them. “Alex, these are my friends. Kitty,” he nodded to the girl next to him, “Piotr,” the strong guy next to her, “Jubilee,” the girl with a yellow jacket and pigtails next to her, “Ororo,” sitting next to Jubilee with pretty cool looking white hair, “and those two are Bobby and John,” Hank introduced. Alex’s eyes went to the blond and brunette boys sitting next to each other and the end of the table, already in their own conversation. 

“Hey Havok!” Peter said cheerily as he sat down next to Alex. “Can you believe we’re all play buddies?”

“Crazy,” Alex sighed, forcing himself to eat one of his soggy fries.

“Peter, enough with the nicknames,” Ororo warned and Peter stuck his tongue out at her.

“I do what I want, Storm.”

“Peter has a nickname for everyone,” Hank informed Alex, who wasn’t the least shocked by this news. 

“Yes I do,” Peter said quite proudly. “I’m Quicksilver, Piotr is Colossus because he is massive, Kitty is Shadowcat, Bobby is Iceman, John is Pyro because he is a pyromaniac, and I haven’t figured out Jubilee’s yet.”

“Because I don’t need one,” Jubilee stated as she took a bite of her apple.

Peter shrugged it off and turned back to Alex. “Hank is Beast.”

Alex gave Hank an amused look. “Oh really? Why’s that?”

“No reason, but it suits him,” Peter said simply and Alex noticed the faint blush on Hank’s cheeks. Alex stared at Hank for a minute longer than he should’ve before looking away. Why? He wasn’t quite sure, but something about seeing Hank flustered did something to Alex. He wasn’t sure what it was, but he would have to find out.

First, he would have to tell Mr. Lehnsherr to change his schedule back...

_Scene IV_

If Logan heard one more kid say a single phrase in Old English, he would chuck a whole table at the stage and go get himself a drink. He knew Charles putting him in charge of this would be a huge mistake, but he couldn’t back out now. Maybe he could slide all the responsibilities over to Scott since he seemed the most excited by all of this. Logan never really cared for theatre, it wasn’t his thing but he remembered how much Scott enjoyed it.

Scott was always listening to musicals, reading books, reading playbills, going to plays, etc. and Logan always tuned it out since he never cared about them or really saw what was exciting about them. Good for Scott and everyone else that enjoyed them but Logan wasn’t about to hop on the theatre train any time soon.

He watched lazily as one kid exited the stage and another kid took their place. This kid this time was McCoy, who looked like a fish out of water being here, but maybe the kid liked this shit too. Again, Logan didn’t care.

“Hello,” Scott greeted Hank kindly, “please tell us your name and the role you’re auditioning for.”

“Hank McCoy and I will be auditioning for the role of Romeo.” Hank grinned at both Logan and Scott and all Logan could do was grunt, receiving a look from Scott.

“Proceed,” Scott said as his eyes lingered on Logan a second longer before smiling back at Hank.

Logan crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair, glancing at the clipboard to see Hank was the last male to audition, thankfully. After him were about five girls and then Logan could go home.

“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?” Hank began and Logan rubbed at his temple, trying to ease the building headache coming on. He had to admit, McCoy was the best audition he heard besides Scott’s brother. He wasn’t surprised by McCoy being good at theatre since the kid seemed good at everything. He was the only student that had maintained a steady A in Logan’s class too while everyone else had a B or lower.

“That was wonderful Hank, thank you,” Scott dismissed, taking Logan out of his thoughts. “I think he could get the part, no?”

Logan shrugged. “Sure.”

“You know Logan,” Scott sighed rather heavily and Logan shot him a look this time, “you could at least _pretend_ to act intrigued about this. You look miserable.”

“I am miserable.”

“How can you be?”

“We’ve been listening to the same five or so lines being repeated over and over again. This is not how I wanted to spend my Friday afternoon,” he grumbled as he sat forward, flipping through some papers to see who was up next.

“Your TV and beer aren’t going anywhere,” Scott teased and Logan rolled his eyes at him, not that he could see. “Look, how about after all of this, I will buy you a drink. Sound good?”

“You don’t drink.”

“Then you will drink while we catch up. Sound good?” Logan shrugged again. “I’ll take that as a yes then.” Logan didn’t even have to turn to look at Scott to see if he was smiling, he knew he was.

_Scene V_

Raven rolled back her shoulders, did some tongue twisters, and deep breathing. She could do this-she was going to absolutely nail Juliet and no one else would. This was her part, she was born to play this part and nothing was going to stop her.

“Good luck, Raven.” Her eyes snapped open as she was taken out of her concentration, looking to see Hank was standing in front of her, a small smile on his face.

“Thanks, but I won’t need luck. I got this.” She brushed past Hank then and went over to stand next to Angel in line, her eyes scanning the fairly empty auditorium outside of Mr. Howlett, some other guy next to him...and Azazel. Raven didn’t know why he was here, she told him he could go home at the end of the school day, but he said he wanted to see her audition. She thought the sentiment was sweet, and a little creepy given she just met him, but she was flattered nonetheless.

Azazel caught Raven’s eye and he gave her a grin and a thumbs up. Raven smiled back and gave him a small wave, which quickly caught Angel’s attention.

“Someone’s got a crush,” she sung and Raven immediately hit her teasingly on the arm.

“No I do not. All I did was show him around the school like Charles requested. It’s no big deal.”

“Mhm,” Angel hummed and Raven rolled her eyes at her. “Oh come on, Raven. He’s been ogling you since you two first met and I’ve seen the way you look at him too. Just go for it.”

Raven scoffed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Like he’s cute and all and he’s nice but so what? I’m not going to date him. Besides, all the boys at this school seem to like me,” she said a bit proudly. “Like look at Hank McCoy, he has a crush on me.”

Angel snorted. “Oh really? How do you know?”

“I can tell. He always goes out of his way to talk to me and he’s always flustered. He’s the kind of guy Charles wants me to be with, I can tell.”

“Would you date him?”

Raven shrugged and scanned the room once more, seeing Hank was chatting it up with Alex backstage. “Hmm, probably not. Maybe if I needed help with one of my classes or something I would, but he’s not my type. And he hangs out with Alex Summers so that is a hard no.”

“I’m surprised he’s still alive,” Angel teased and Raven giggled.

“I know right? I wonder why Alex is even here. Maybe if he doesn’t get the role he wants, he’ll beat up Mr. Howlett,” she laughed.

“Oh Howlett would totally win. He probably has at least a hundred pounds of muscle on him. And why would someone like Hank hang out with Alex anyway? Alex is so-”

“So what?” Both of them jumped and whipped around to see Peter was standing casually behind him, munching on a twinkie. 

“You know it’s not very nice to eavesdrop,” Angel fumed, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Well it’s not very nice to gossip about people you don’t know either, is it?” Peter retorted casually and Raven made a noise in the back of her throat.

“Alex Summers is trouble and even you know it.”

Peter shrugged and shoved the rest of his twinkie in his mouth. “He’s nice,” he muffled and Raven rolled her eyes at him. 

“He nearly killed a kid at his last school, Peter.”

“So? It’s badass!” He enthused and Raven shook her head at him.

“Whatever,” she grumbled, turning back around to see Azazel was looking at her again. Raven felt her cheeks heat up this time since yeah, Azazel was pretty cute, but would he be a good boyfriend? Raven wanted to get to know him first before she made any decisions but he definitely had potential.

“Next please!” The guy next to Howlett called out and Raven squealed, taking center stage and showing them a bright smile. Time to kill it!

_Scene VI_

Charles knocked once on Erik’s office door before he opened it up and poked his head in. “Is it a bad time?” He asked as he saw Erik had already finished packing up for the day and was about to head home.

“No, please come in.” Erik set his things down as Charles stepped into the room, closing the door behind him and locking it. “Something I can help you with?”

“I read your email,” he began, a little confused by Erik’s own confused expression.

“What email?”

“The one you sent this morning.” Erik still looked confused so Charles explained further. “The one where you apologized and confessed your feelings for me. Compared me to a snack?”

Erik’s face paled and he dropped down into his desk chair. “Charles, I-I can explain. I meant to delete it but then an upset student walked in and I clicked a few buttons and I thought I closed out of it but instead I must’ve sent it so I am deeply sorry and please don’t fire me.”

“Fire you? Erik, I’m not firing you over an email or having romantic feelings for me.” Erik nodded, remaining silent. “Look Erik,” he started to walk towards his desk, starting to feel a mixture of excitement and nervousness, “I was very flattered by it.”

“Really?”

Charles nodded, continuing to walk closer. “Erik, I know I am your boss and all but we can keep things professional inside of work, no?” He came around Erik’s desk and Erik abruptly stood up, towering over Charles by a few inches. “My sister told me to go for it, so I suppose this is me-”

Erik silenced him with a kiss then and Charles nearly melted in his arms. His eyes fluttered shut as he kissed him back, his arms moving up to wrap around his neck as he kissed him again and again. He would tell Raven about this...but for now, he may keep it to himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be up on November 8th!! Stay tuned!!
> 
> Also thoughts on Alex's story? Tis a sad one...


	4. Act III

_Scene I_

Precisely one month had passed since Alex had auditioned for the school play. All the roles were given out and Alex wasn’t a main lead-he was casted as understudy. Not an understudy for Romeo, Mercutio, Benevolio, Caputlet, etc. he was casted as the _general_ understudy. Meaning, if anyone got sick, Alex would take up their role since that was how little the whole cast of the play actually was. He wasn’t mad about it at all because he didn’t want to be directly in the spotlight and it still got him out of doing Boy Scouts. Plus, everyone in the play was in perfect health so Alex had nothing to worry about.

Well, he was worried about something….

Him and Hank have gotten super close in the past month too. It was crazy how much him and Hank had in common and it scared Alex with how much time they were spending together in and out of school. Even Scott commented on Hank being Alex’s friend and that was definitely new. Maybe because Alex had never brought a friend home before since he didn’t really have a lot of friends post elementary school, by his own choosing, but having Scott say something made Alex feel weird in a way. He didn’t know what about it was weird, but it was _weird_.

Hank was practically his best friend now, it wasn’t that big of a deal in retrospect. Alex didn’t really think about it as a big deal either since Hank was his friend, and he started to become friends with Hank’s friends as well. Surprisingly enough, Peter wasn’t as annoying as Alex made him out to be, or he was used to his rambles and ranting, who knew at this point, but regardless, he was now in a circle of friends. Which again, was pretty weird for him. It was different, definitely different, but Alex had to admit, he didn’t mind it one bit.

What Alex did mind though and what had him worried this past month were his feelings for Hank. Not friendship feelings, but _feelings feelings_. Alex has had his fair share of crushes in the past sure, but he never talked to any of the people he liked or let alone acted on his feelings. He wasn’t acting on his feelings with Hank though since Hank clearly still had a thing for Raven. Alex had to keep reminding himself of that whenever he found himself laughing too hard at one of Hank’s stupid yet funny jokes, or staring at Hank too long, or simply general feelings that friends weren’t supposed to feel. It was hard, trying to be very nonchalant about his crush on Hank and still be his friend, but Alex would make it work. He always did.

And the thing that had Alex the most worried about Hank was in fact Raven. Ever since they had gotten their roles, Alex certainly noticed the chemistry they had on stage. He didn’t know if Raven was dating that new kid, Azazel, or not, but he still had to be cautious. In between scenes, Alex noticed Hank and Raven laughing on the side, sometimes Alex would even catch Raven’s hand on Hank’s arm. Jealousy ran through Alex whenever Raven was around and he knew he had no business being jealous but he couldn’t help it!

“Hey.” Fingers snapped in front of Alex’s face and he flinched, coming out of his thoughts and back to his reality: Rehearsals. Alex didn’t know why he had to come to them, but Scott insisted that he had to tune in to see people’s _mannerisms_. Alex thought it was completely idiotic to do so, but again, no Boy Scouts. “Alex.”

Alex turned his head towards the voice that snapped his name, not surprised by the fact that it was Scott. “Yes?” He asked with slight annoyance, looking back towards the stage where he saw Hank and Raven chatting and laughing _again_ before looking down at his shoes.

“Are you paying attention and following along? I don’t expect anyone to be sick, but in case someone does, you need to be prepared.”

“Noted,” he replied dryly, pulling his phone out to see he only had five minutes left before he could leave, thankfully.

“Look Alex,” Scott sighed heavily as he sat down next to him, making Alex look up and meet his eyes, “I know you’re bored and I’m sorry you didn’t get a main role, but think about the bright side! You get to see the whole behind the scenes of the theatre! See the whole thing in the making! Not a lot of people get to have that opportunity but you do!”

Alex grunted. “Lucky me.”

Scott frowned at Alex’s comment and his face grew into concern. “Are you alright? You seem a little grumpy. Everything okay?” Alex nodded. “You sure?”

“Yes Scott, I’m fine. I’m going to go, I’ll see you at home.” Alex stood up quickly and brisked out of the auditorium, leaving without anyone truly noticing. He made his way into the hallway and walked down a few hallways till he reached his locker, opening it up to get his bag.

“Hey Havok!” He heard Peter yell from down the hall. Alex sighed as he rubbed at his forehead, grabbing his bag off the hook and closing his locker door. He leaned up against it as Peter raced over to him.

“What’s up?”

“Can I talk to you for a second?” Peter asked, his face rather serious which was an expression Alex had never seen on him before. “Look I-I know man,” he began without waiting for Alex to answer, “I know.”

“Know what?”

Peter stepped a little closer and Alex straightened himself up. “I-I know you like Hank.”

Alex laughed as he felt a puddle of fear and anxiety pool in his stomach. “Yeah I mean, he’s my best friend, of course I like Hank.” Peter’s mouth formed into a thin line and Alex shook his head at him. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, really I don’t.”

“I’m not going to tell him or anything,” Peter promised and Alex shrugged. 

“There’s nothing for you to tell. Hank’s my best friend.”

“Yeah, I know. You’re not very subtle, you know? Like I see the way you look at him and how you look at him when he’s with Raven and you know? I’m not that fond of her either since she’s kind of a mean girl like not a mean person, well she is that too, but a _mean girl_. Anyway, Hank could totally do better and well, you’re the better really.”

“Gee, thanks Peter.” Alex pushed himself off his locker and quickly started to walk, heading towards the exit.

“Hey!” Peter jogged next to him and started to sync his steps in with Alex’s, keeping up his pace. “I didn’t mean anything by that, like I’m just saying that you’re more suitable for Hank. You get him and like I can tell you make Hank happy and Raven has a boyfriend anyway so you should go-”

Alex halted. “Wait what?”

“You should go for it,” Peter repeated as he stopped himself too.

“No, before that. You said Raven has a boyfriend?”

Peter nodded. “Oh yeah, that new kid, Azazel. They’re for sure dating.”

Alex breathed a sigh of relief, that was good to know. He wondered if Hank knew, but Alex didn’t want to be the guy that told him. Or maybe he should tell him, he wasn’t sure. 

“Wait Peter, how do you know this?”

“My dad is dating Raven’s brother and they’re already doing the whole family introductions thing and Raven was there with Azazel and yeah, they’re pretty affectionate so definitely dating,” he explained and Alex really felt at ease with that news. “But anyway, you and Hank-”

“There is no me and Hank,” Alex stated firmly. “He’s my friend, nothing more.”

Peter hummed. “I mean, he could be something more if you told-”

“I’m not telling him anything and neither are you, okay?”

“Don’t you think he deserves to know?”

“No!” Alex exclaimed rather loudly, glancing over his shoulders and past Peter to see they were in fact alone. “If I tell Hank he’ll be all nice about how he doesn’t have feelings for me like that and then we’ll remain friends but it won’t be the same because that little confession of mine will always be there! Look Peter, I get what you’re trying to do but I think it’s best if I or you don’t do anything since I’m really bad at having friends and I really, _really_ don’t want to lose Hank as my friend.”

“But-”

“I gotta go, I’ll see you Monday.” Alex flashed him a quick apologetic smile as a ‘sorry for interrupting’ before he continued on his way. 

He exited the building a couple of minutes later and went straight towards his car. Alex threw his backpack in the backseat and started to head home, wanting nothing more than to take a nice long nap. He didn’t want any interruptions, didn’t want to think about Hank or theatre or his conversation with Peter, he wanted to sleep. And would he be successful? Probably not, but it didn’t hurt to try.

_Scene II_

Raven smiled down at her phone as Azazel sent her an ‘I miss you’ text followed by a series of heart emojis. She reciprocated the message and sent twice as many heart emojis as Azazel sent her, feeling bubbly all over.

“So do you like to read?”

Raven glanced up to see Hank was looking at her with a kind smile. They were at some diner near the school since Hank asked Raven if she would like to go and who was Raven to turn down a free meal? And she knew Charles was at home probably with Erik, humping around the house like rabbits, so she used that as a motive to go out with Hank too. She wished she could spend the afternoon with Azazel, but he had things to do with his family, unfortunately. 

“No, not really,” she finally replied to Hank’s question. “Unless I’m absolutely forced to read I’ll read, but I don’t do it for fun unless I’m super bored.” She daintily reached for her milkshake and took a long sip, staring at Hank curiously. She knew he had a crush on her, and she was a little flattered but she was taken. “So I’m sure you’re aware that we have to kiss,” she mentioned and Hank nodded a little eagerly, “well, I think it’s best if you kiss me on the cheek. I have a boyfriend and if I kiss you that is cheating.” 

“That’s fine,” Hank agreed, an unsettled look forming on his face.

“Cool. Are you still friends with Alex Summers?” Raven had noticed them hanging out quite a lot and she didn’t quite understand why a guy like Hank would be friends with someone like Alex. She was curious, Hank couldn’t fault her for that could he? 

“Yeah, he’s my best friend, why?”

Raven snorted. “Seriously? He’s your best friend?” Hank nodded, confusion growing on his face. “My God Hank, he’s a criminal. Even a guy as smart as you could see that.”

“He’s not a criminal,” Hank laughed off.

“Uh yeah he is, he beat a guy up at his last school. Nearly killed him really, that’s why he was expelled.” Raven popped a couple of her onion rings in her mouth, wiping the grease off her hands on a napkin before tossing it on her plate. “Did you not know that?” She asked once she finished chewing and swallowing.

Hank shook his head. “I thought it was a rumor.”

“No, it’s not. If you want to be friends with someone like that then go ahead, I’m not going to stop you.” She slid out of her seat and grabbed her purse, draping it over her shoulder. “Just be careful and make sure you have insurance.” She waved goodbye before walking out of the diner and heading over to her car. She really didn’t want to go home quite yet, but she didn’t really have anyone else to hang out with either.

Time to go shopping!

Normally, she would invite Angel along with her, but Angel was too busy _rehearsing_ with Darwin nowadays. Raven was happy that Angel finally did something and spoke up about her feelings towards him. If Raven didn’t say something, she would’ve screamed. She hated when people pined after one another. It was so stupid and time consuming!

Thankfully for Raven, her and Azazel were practically a perfect match. He was truly the gentleman Raven had always wanted in her life and truly desired. She had Charles to thank really for their pairing, but she wouldn’t be thanking him quite yet. Her and Azazel have only been dating for the past three weeks and Raven did not want to jinx anything.

Call it Women’s Intuition or whatever but she could tell that her relationship with Azazel would last a while. She didn’t know what would happen when summer rolled around and then they both had to go off to college, but she would take her days one day at a time.

She cleared her throat as she hopped in her car, swallowing down a couple of times since it did feel a little scratchy. Maybe her allergies or something were acting up since there was no way in Hell that Raven was sick or getting sick. She hadn’t gotten sick since first grade and she was keeping up that record for a very long time. She never got sick and she wasn’t going to start now.

Maybe the grease from the onion rings irritated her throat or possibly it was acid reflux. Regardless, Raven was going to be perfectly fine!

_Scene III_

Erik had finished pulling his shirt back on when he felt arms wrap around his back and settle across his chest. He turned around and smiled at Charles, pressing a kiss to his nose while his hands settled on his waist.

“Do you really have to go?” Charles’ lips formed into a slight pout and Erik nodded a little sadly.

“I have to get home to Peter. Friday night us our movie night and it’s been that way forever.” Charles gave a nod in understanding and Erik gave him a quick peck. “I’ll call you.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” Charles grinned and finally let Erik go. Erik grabbed his shoes and walked out of Charles’ bedroom. He slipped them on when he entered the hall before continuing his way through another hallway and down the stairs. Charles’ place was quite larger than Erik’s, but that wasn’t the least bit surprising given Charles’ career position. The house, from what Charles told him, belonged to his father too and he inherited it when he died. It was nice, quite big for Erik’s taste, but it did suit Charles.

When Erik reached the bottom of the stairs, he began to head to the front door, coming to a halt when it opened. “Oh, hello Raven,” he greeted her with a small smile and Raven gave him one back.

“Hey Mr. Leh-_Erik_,” she quickly corrected. “Leaving so soon?”

“Unfortunately yes,” he dug his hands in his pockets, enclosing one hand around his car keys, “I have to get home to Peter. Do some bonding.” Raven nodded, turning her attention to her phone as it chimed, causing a smile to form across her face. “How is the play going? Peter is really enjoying his time there, I hope you’re having a similar experience.”

Raven shrugged, not looking up. “It’s alright, I mean, it would be more fun if my boyfriend was in the lead,” she laughed and Erik wasn’t sure if she was joking or not. “But today felt a little off honestly and I think it’s because I have a headache coming on or something. I was going to go shopping but my head is really killing me now. I’m hoping it’s like hormonal or something.”

“I-I’m sure it is. Feel better,” Erik gave her another smile, not that she could see, and walked past her and out the front door. He headed right into his car and pulled out his phone, sending Peter a text that he was on his way.

He began to drive, which was a fairly quick one since Charles only lived about twenty minutes away from Erik, and soon enough, Erik was pulling up into his own driveway. He parked his car alongside Peter’s and locked his car before heading inside.

When Erik entered, the house was eerily quiet. “Peter?” He called out, taking his shoes off and setting his keys by the front door. He entered the living room to find it empty, which was a little odd since Peter was usually there. He shrugged it off, not wanting to get overly concerned, and decided to check Peter’s room. Peter was probably in there, listening to music which would explain why he wouldn’t have heard Erik call out his name.

As Erik checked Peter’s bedroom, he was very surprised to find it empty and saw Peter’s phone was on his bed. Erik wasn’t a nosey person, but he picked up Peter’s phone to see he didn’t even open his text. A slight panic started to rise in Erik but he shouldn’t panic. His son would be eighteen this winter, he was fine. He was nearly an adult and somewhat responsible, he would be okay. Erik didn’t know why Peter would leave the house without his phone on him, but he didn’t want to jump to any drastic conclusions.

Erik swore he was not a helicopter parent, he was simply very _protective_ of his son. There was a difference, but how big of a difference, he wasn’t quite sure.

Nonetheless, Erik headed back downstairs and as he did, he saw the front door open and Peter stepped inside. He was wearing his track uniform and his hair was nearly drenched in sweat as well as Peter himself, but Erik couldn’t help walking over to him and pulling him into a hug.

“Dad, this is a little gross, even for me,” Peter mumbled against his shoulder and Erik smiled, pulling back to look at him.

“You alright? How was school?”

“I’m fine, school was fine. I needed to clear my head,” he said as he ran a hand through his hair, walking over to the kitchen to get himself some water; Erik followed behind him to continue on their conversation. “Thinking about a situation.”

Erik leaned against the doorway of the kitchen entry, casually crossing his arms over his chest as he watched Peter grab a glass and fill it up with water. “What kind of situation?”

Peter gulped down the glass in three big sips before filling it back up. “Friends of mine clearly like each other but don’t think the other likes them. High school stuff, ya know?” Peter continued to drink his water and Erik nodded in understanding.

“Well, I’m sure they’ll figure things out for themselves. It’s best to leave other people’s business to them.” Peter nodded in agreement and said something against his glass that Erik didn’t understand. “What?”

“Can we order pizza for dinner? Olives and pineapple and all that?”

Erik let out a faint laugh at his topping choices before he nodded. “Yeah we can get pizza. And it’s your turn to pick a movie tonight too, so choose carefully.”

Peter grinned. “I always do.”

_Scene IV_

As soon as Scott got home, he immediately went right to the kitchen and started to prepare dinner. Tonight was not a soup night-it was spaghetti night. He knew Alex would be relieved to eat something besides soup for dinner but Scott never understood why Alex simply didn’t cook for himself if he didn’t want to eat soup. He knew how to cook too, perhaps it was laziness that went along with it. Scott didn’t mind doing the cooking or cooking for Alex either, it would be nice for him to not cook for once though.

Well tonight, Scott wasn’t cooking for him and Alex, he invited Logan over for dinner too. After their dinner of catching up about a month ago, Scott was actually very surprised by how much he enjoyed Logan’s company. He assumed Logan enjoyed his too since Logan did ask to meet up with Scott again which he was very surprised and a little flattered by. For once, Scott actually took the time to get to know Logan and he wasn’t half bad. Working together aside, they got along fairly well. Sure Logan still pushed Scott’s buttons, but other than that, everything was good.

He wouldn’t say they were dating because they didn’t do anything romantic. All they did was have dinner together a few times and Scott wouldn’t classify them as dates. He knew Logan could possibly never see him that way either. They were just friends.

And did Scott see Logan that way himself? He wasn’t quite sure honestly. He found Logan attractive no doubt since he was a very handsome man, anyone could see that. He enjoyed Logan’s company too but that doesn’t necessarily make Scott like him, does it? God this stuff was confusing.

Escaping his thoughts, Scott took out the ground beef he thawed out in the fridge and moved it to a bowl, adding in some onions and other spices to make the meatballs. Scott enjoyed cooking and baking and literally anything that kept him busy. He was thankful that Alex did mention the school play because it really gave Scott something to _do_. He couldn’t lie, he was pretty bored in the house most days. All he did was stay home and do chores which varied from cleaning, which he did daily, and cooking. Sometimes if Scott really had nothing to do, he would organize and reorganize the cupboards or bookshelves. Alex was the only one who truly was annoyed by it since he couldn’t find things when Scott did one of his organizing sprees. But it preoccupied Scott so was there any true harm?

When the play fell into his hands though, or when Logan went hands off with it and let Scott do whatever he wanted even though he wasn’t getting paid, Scott was elated. He knew teaching theatre was his true calling and maybe, just maybe, he could get Principal Xavier to recognize his passion for it and potentially hire him...if Scott applied. He would talk about it with him when everything was all said and done.

He heard a knock on the door and Scott escaped his thoughts. Logan was certainly early, which was a first for him since he was the least punctual person Scott knew, so Scott quickly washed his hands before he raced over to the front door. He took a minute to collect himself before he opened the door up and let out a breath as he saw Logan.

...and Logan smelled pretty good. 

Not that he smelled bad or anything, he always smelled like cigars and some faint cologne Scott couldn’t pinpoint, but right now, Logan smelled fresh as a daisy and whatever cologne he was wearing this time smelled _very_ good. It reminded Scott of a polished wood floor with the faintest hints of vanilla. Logan not only had an aroma that was amazing but he also looked really good too. His hair was combed back in a way Scott had never seen before and it really brought out Logan’s features nicely and he was dressed in a black dress shirt with matching slacks that really fitted him quite well.

Scott was probably staring way too long at Logan, and he was.

And Logan, he didn’t seem to mind at all. The corner of his mouth turned up in a smirk as he met Scott’s eyes. “You gonna invite me in or what?” He was also holding a bottle of what looked like champagne and Logan followed Scott’s eyes. “It’s sparkling cider,” he explained as he met his eyes once more.

“Right, yeah sorry. Thank you,” Scott shook his head at himself, coming out of his daze and stepping off the the side while opening the door wider for Logan to step in. “I wasn’t expecting you this soon, dinner isn’t even ready yet.”

“That’s fine, I can help with that, if you want.”

Scott was beginning to close the door as he froze, looking at Logan intensely. “You want to help?” Logan nodded and Scott let out a gasp of surprise. Logan wanted to cook _with_ him? When it came to their work, Logan was hands off with that but he wanted to help Scott cook? What was going on?

“What?” Logan barked and Scott jumped, closing the door and leaning up against it.

“Nothing, I-um-kitchen’s this way.” He pushed himself off the door and headed back to the kitchen, Logan following him.

Scott took the cider from Logan and put it in the fridge to chill, washing his hands again and tending back to his meatballs.

“What can I do?” Logan asked, his presence feeling even closer to Scott than it did before.

“You can get started on making the sauce.” He heard a scoff and turned his head to see Logan was giving him a weird look. “What?”

“You don’t have a jar of it?”

“And inject my body with piles of sodium and processed sugars? No, I don’t have a jar.” He shook his head at him and Logan looked at him like he was crazy. “Besides, the jar sauce doesn’t taste good to me, I prefer to make it myself.”

Logan gave a slow nod, still looking fazed. “Okay...what do you want me to do first?”

“There’s some spices above my head on this shelf right here,” Scott gestured to the rack with his head, “and you will grab the oregano, basil, and garlic salt. Mix that in a bowl which are in the cupboard right next to the fridge and then we’ll add the tomatoes.” Scott turned his attention back to the meat, mixing it enough to the point where he could start to morph them into balls. He heard Logan shuffle closer and Scott moved himself to the right a little to give Logan some space. “I would grab the spices myself but-” he stopped himself as he felt Logan against his back and Scott’s stomach did an odd flip. He turned around and his chest was nearly touching Logan’s, causing a heat to rise to his cheeks at the proximity and made his head feel all fuzzy from the smell Logan gave off. “- my hands are occupied,” he finished, his mouth suddenly feeling dry.

Logan leaned his head in a little closer and Scott did the same, not really sure what he was doing. He may not be thinking clearly or he was dreaming because he felt Logan’s arms settle around his waist and Scott did not find himself pulling away. He found himself relaxing into Logan’s touch and watched as Logan’s tongue darted out to lick his lips…

“What the fuck?”

Scott jumped out of his trance and turned his head towards the kitchen doorway, seeing Alex was standing there. His hair was sticking up in some areas and his eyes looked a little tired but they were wide, extremely wide.

“Alex,” he began, not finding the strength or need to really pull out of Logan’s touch.

“Are you dating my _history teacher_?!” Scott opened his mouth to reply but before he could answer, someone’s phone started to ring. Logan pulled away from Scott then to check his own but quickly put it away. “It’s mine,” Alex announced, keeping his eyes on Scott and Logan as he answered his phone. 

Scott cleared his throat and turned back towards his meat, trying to occupy himself with that and not with what happened between him and Logan. “Focus on forming the balls,” he said to himself.

“Hank invited me to sleepover so-um-sorry for intruding on your date and I’ll see you tomorrow,” Alex told him and before Scott could utter a word, Alex disappeared.

He knew he would have a whole lot of explaining to do, but first he would have to wrap his head around the fact that Logan tried to _kiss_ him…and Scott was about to kiss him too.

_Scene V_

“God you are a lifesaver,” was the first thing Alex said to him when Hank opened up his door and let him inside. “You will not believe what happened.”

Hank let out a faint laugh. “I’m sure it can’t be that bad.”

“Mr. Howlett was at my house.” Hank snorted, shaking his head in disbelief. Why would a teacher be at Alex’s house after school hours? Hank knew Alex wouldn’t be in any sort of trouble, despite what Raven told him earlier. “Like seriously he was there having dinner with my brother,” Alex continued on a little frantically, “and then I’m pretty sure they were about to kiss before I walked in.”

“Really?” Alex nodded vigorously. “Doesn’t your brother get annoyed by Mr. Howlett? Along with everyone?”

“Yeah you would think,” he replied as he took his shoes off and set them on the front door, “but I guess not. It’s so weird.” 

“Sounds weird,” Hank agreed, walking with Alex over to the living room and sitting on the couch with him. 

“Anyway,” Alex sighed, wanting to change the subject, “your parents home?” Hank shook his head and Alex let out a small smile. “Lucky. My parents are always home since my dad retired super young and my mom always stayed at home so I never really had much time to myself which sucked but in a way it was nice since I was never _alone_. Sometimes I am truly alone alone, which has been more recently since Scott’s been out of the house.”

“Probably with Howlett,” Hank teased and Alex tossed a pillow at him.

“That’s not funny.”

Hank shrugged. “It’s a little bit funny.”

Alex shrugged himself and let a bigger smile slip. “Yeah I guess it’s a little funny. Enough about my brother and Howlett, how are you?”

Hank let out a long sigh, his conversation with Raven flowing back into his head. He wanted to ask Alex about it but it really wasn’t Hank’s place to ask. If Alex did not want to talk about it then he didn’t have to talk about it. Him and Alex weren’t quite at that level of trust yet with their friendship and they haven’t really opened up to each other about some of the things that happened in their past fully.

“That bad, huh? Do you wanna talk about it?”

Hank shook his head but not at the question. “No, it’s nothing bad. I keep thinking about something.”

Alex gave a slow nod and moved a little closer to Hank on the couch, seeming intrigued. “Well, do you want to talk about it?”

Hank let out another sigh and pushed his glasses up as he rubbed at his eyes. “I don’t know. I know that’s not a good answer and I’m sorry but-”

“Hank, if you don’t want to talk about it then we don’t have to talk about it.”

Hank adjusted his glasses and looked at Alex fully. He wanted to ask since Hank felt like he needed to clear the air with him but his heart told him not to. He only got into one fight with Alex and Hank did not want to fight with him again so to avoid that, he shouldn’t say anything.

“Is there anything you want to talk about?” Hank asked instead and Alex shook his head. “Okay,” he breathed out, trying to come up with something to change the subject but all his mind could focus on was his conversation with Raven. Maybe Hank needed a distraction. “Do you want to watch a movie?”

“If you want to, yeah. I don’t mind.”

“Okay,” he repeated, grabbing the TV remote and turning the TV on. Hank started to flip through channels, hating the uncomfortable and awkward tone that was surrounding them at the moment. He drummed his fingers on his thigh, keeping his eyes glued to the TV screen as the silence kept building.

“Hank, I have something to tell you.” Alex blurted after about two minutes of complete silence and Hank breathed a sigh of relief as he immediately turned off the TV and gave Alex his full attention again. “I’m only telling you this since you’re my friend and you deserve to know and I know it’s gonna suck but maybe it might be best if you hear it from me versus someone else or finding out for yourself.”

Hank sucked in a deep breath. “I already know.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “You do?” Hank nodded and Alex’s face grew into a look of sympathy. “I’m so sorry.”

“Why? It doesn’t change my opinion of you or our friendship. I don’t know the full story of it but I know from what people told me.”

Alex sat up straighter, becoming fully alert as he looked at Hank very seriously. “Wait wait, someone _told_ you something about me? Shit, I’m really going to kill Maximoff-”

“Peter didn’t tell me, Raven did.”

Alex’s mouth fell open and his face paled. His eyes went a little wide and fear washed over his face. “Raven kno-Raven told you?” Hank nodded, shaking his head as he remembered her words.

“Yeah and I didn’t believe her. It’s a stupid rumor, I don’t listen to those.”

Alex blinked. “What are you talking about?”

Hank blinked himself, a little taken aback. “What are you talking about?”

“I-I-um-I-I was going to tell you that Raven has a boyfriend.”

“Oh,” Hank said with slight disappointment, “I know. She told me today since we addressed the kissing scene and she said how I should kiss her on the cheek only since it would be cheating if she kissed me on the lips. Which I understand completely since she is in a relationship and I cannot be upset with her because of it. I get it, she doesn’t like me, and I’ll be okay.”

After his conversations with Raven, Hank didn’t really like her as much as he thought he would. Sure she was smart, pretty, and remotely nice, but she was way too into herself for Hank’s liking. She was way too into her phone like most teenagers and Hank wasn’t attached to his phone like her to really have that in common. The only time Hank was truly on his phone was when he was talking to Alex, which was pretty much daily. And most of the time Hank was with Raven, he wished Alex was there too since Alex was fun and understood Hank. They’ve only been friends for like a month but Hank felt like he knew Alex forever.

And speaking of Alex, Alex was staring at Hank a little weirdly now.

“What are _you_ talking about?” Alex repeated once more and Hank took in a deep breath as he ran a hand through his hair. He could do this. Well, could he do this?

“Alex, I-I don’t want to offend you when I ask this, okay?” Alex nodded and Hank swallowed down since his throat went dry. “I’ve heard rumors, about you. God, that sounds really horrible and I’m sorry-”

“You want to know if they’re true,” Alex said quietly and Hank dumbly nodded.

“You don’t have to tell me if you’re uncomfortable,” he quickly added. “I don’t believe them.” 

“Yeah well, they’re true. Every single one that you heard is true.”

Hank felt unsettled by that answer. He knew he shouldn’t have said anything since now Hank feels really crappy for even mentioning it. “Alex, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have pried and you don’t-”

“It’s fine, really it is. It was only a matter of time before you found out anyway.” Hank went quiet, not knowing what to say or do so he let Alex guide the conversation, if he chose to do so. “There-um-there was this kid, Mortimer. He was a dick to everyone, but especially me. I didn’t know why but ever since like middle school or something he didn’t like me. He was a real ass and he looked like a Toad so a lot of people called him that. It pissed him off and when people would make fun of him, I became his target. I never really knew why he didn’t like me and I probably will never know.”

Hank’s chest started to hurt then as he thought of someone actually hating Alex for no apparent reason. Alex didn’t deserve that and Hell, no one deserved that but especially Alex. Alex was too kind and nice and probably the coolest person Hank knew. What was wrong with people?

“And he would say the worst things and one day I had enough,” Alex continued. “I got so sick and tired of him. I don’t know what came over me one day but I was pushed so far that I just snapped. I remember I threw one punch and I didn’t stop. Then before I knew it, I was in the office with my parents and I was expelled.”

“And Toad?” Hank merely whispered.

“He got off scott free which is bullshit, but he was and there was nothing I or anyone could do about it. My parents wanted to bring lawyers in and everything, press charges against the kid but I talked them out of it since I wanted to let it go and move on.” Alex ran a hand through his hair and kept his eyes on Hank. “And then finally, Scott moved me in with him and I started to go to our school. Principal Xavier was really understanding of the situation too which helped a lot and that’s about it.”

“Alex, I’m so sorry,” he started and Alex brushed him off.

“Don’t be, it’s not your fault.”

“No, it’s not but I’m sorry for what I said to you that one time and I’m so sorry that happened to you. I know you probably don’t want sympathy and I-I’m sorry if I’m phrasing this horribly but Alex, you’re the best person I know and you don’t deserve that or any of that to happen. No one deserves that really but especially you. I’m sorry I don’t really know what to say but Alex I’m so sorry.”

Alex gave him a tight smile. “It’s okay, really it is.”

Hank shook his head and got off of the couch and stood in front of Alex, who got off of the couch too, probably out of curiosity. Hank pulled Alex into a hug and held onto him tightly. He didn’t normally hug his friends or anything, but not only did Alex need it, Hank wanted to do it. He felt it was right, as awkward as it may be.

Alex seemed pretty okay with the hug, better than Hank was expecting him to be. Alex’s head rested against Hank’s chest with his arms around his back loosely. Hank’s arms were in similar positions on Alex’s back while his head rested on top of his. It was a nice hug, it felt right in a way Hank couldn’t quite pinpoint.

“Hank, I have something else to tell you,” Alex muttered before he pulled back but not away from Hank.

Hank stared down at Alex then and really, _really_ stared at him. His eyes were wide and shining in the light as he looked up at Hank and boy were his eyes pretty; Hank had never noticed before up until now. His eyes were so bright and swimming with shades of blue, it reminded Hank of the ocean. And Alex’s face looked so soft too and he truly was very handsome.

Some sort of lightbulb went off for Hank in that moment but he didn’t know what for. He must’ve figured something out but he didn’t quite understand what. He shook his head and himself and focused on Alex again.

“What is it that you wanted to say?”

“That we should get pizza or something because I am starving.” Alex let out a small laugh as he pulled away and Hank found himself missing his touch. It was an odd thing to feel, towards his best friend, but he shrugged it off for now. Also, it seemed as though Alex wanted to say something else too but refrained from doing so. Hank wasn’t about to start analyzing what that could possibly be at the moment, and he really had no idea what it could be either.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone’s catching feelings...


	5. Act IV

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second to last chapter, enjoy!

_Scene I_

The day of the play was finally here, which was thankfully on a Friday so Raven could spend the whole weekend and winter break to herself. Two months, two whole months of rehearsing and preparing for the play and it was finally show time! Well, show time was at seven at night and Raven had a little over thirteen hours till the play actually begun.

And honestly, she felt like shit.

Her little ailments happened at least a week ago. She was nauseous, had an overwhelmingly strong headache, a fever, and her body ached all over. She thought it was due to good old Mother Nature paying her a visit and thought they were hormonal induced symptoms. However, a week had gone by and she still wasn’t better! Azazel, her poor, amazing boyfriend, Azazel was sick as well. Raven couldn’t have possibly gotten whatever he had, could she?

No, she wouldn’t, _couldn’t_ because she does not get sick dammit! She was as healthy and as strong as an ox and she would be in her best shape possible in order to play Juliet tonight.

She finally came out of her thoughts enough to turn her alarm off and get out of bed. She threw the covers off sometime last night and when she flicked on the lightswitch, Raven saw the massive sweat stain her body had left on her bedsheet. She gagged a little in her mouth and made a note to change her sheets when she got home and would spend break washing her bedding heavily.

Raven grabbed the cute sweater and jeans she had laid out for herself the night before and glanced at herself in the mirror by her armoire. She truly looked horrible. Her nose was all red and puffy, her eyes looked crusted and yucky, and on the inside, she could tell something was trying to kill her because she felt truly horrible. Maybe she could sleep some more and get away with missing school today but still show up for final rehearsals and the play, yeah she could do that.

She set her clothes down and went to inform Charles of this since she knew he was up this early. Raven left her bedroom and made her way downstairs to the kitchen, seeing Charles was up and about, fixing himself a cup of tea. “Charles,” she rasped out and Charles turned to face her, jumping back visibly when he saw her.

“You look horrible!” Raven rolled her eyes at that, not needing to be reminded with how crappy she looked. “There is no way you are going to school today! You could get everyone else sick and don’t even get me started on the cast members-”

“I can’t miss the play!” She squeaked, hating that she sounded like a child. “I’ve been rehearsing for the past two months and-and-”

“Raven please save your voice since this really is not up for debate. You are staying home and that is final. You can miss the school play tonight too, I’m sure whoever is understudy can take over for you now get back to bed.” Raven stood where she was, crossing her arms over her chest and standing her ground. Charles gave her a displeased look as he took a sip of his tea before continuing. “I know having the flu isn’t the best, but you need to take care of yourself and rest.”

“Well I hate the flu and I hate that Azazel gave it to me.”

Charles cocked an eyebrow at that. “Azazel gave it to you?”

“Yes, since he’s the only person I’ve literally kissed and was near-Why are you laughing?” She gave Charles an annoyed look as he chuckled. “Do you think me being sick and missing out on the play is funny?!” Raven immediately regretted raising her voice at the end since now her throat was making her pay the consequences. 

“Raven...I do believe you have...mono.”

“What?! Charles, that is absolutely ridiculous! I don’t have mono!” Charles gave her a knowing look and she huffed. “How would you know anyway? You’re not a doctor.”

Charles hummed as a smirk formed across his face. “I’ve had it once before myself and the symptoms are all too clear in you. Now, please get back to bed and avoid touching or kissing anything or anyone till you are better. I will schedule an appointment for you when I get home and you have all break to rest up anyway!”

Raven pouted. This was not fair! Why did she have to get mono on today of all days?! Couldn’t this stupid illness wait until tomorrow? She didn’t mind being sick on break since she wasn’t doing anything remotely vigorous outside of opening presents and shopping. But tonight, tonight was her night and now it was completely ruined! The only plus side, if there was a plus side, was that she could skip school but it did not outweigh the fact that she will miss her chance at stardom!

_Scene II_

Alex was resting his hands on his arms again because Scott would not stop talking about the school play last night and how excited he was, and Alex was dozing off per usual. He knew he couldn’t sleep through Chemistry and he didn’t want to either since it was his only class with Hank and he had to stay relatively alert. He had come to terms with his crush on Hank and learned to accept that it may not ever form into a relationship. Alex was mostly alright with this since he would rather keep Hank as his best friend and not lose Hank as a friend by telling him the truth.

Hank would never find out the truth either, he was sure of that.

He felt a nudge on his arm and Alex lifted his head up, a sleepily smile forming across his face as he saw who it was. “Hey Romeo,” he greeted Hank, who flashed Alex a warm smile as he sat down next to him. 

“Hey yourself,” he greeted back, making Alex’s stomach feel fuzzy. “You know sleeping in class is against school rules,” he pointed out and Alex shook his head at him.

“Technically, class didn’t even start yet and I’m not even asleep and you should mind your own business,” he teased and Hank hissed as if he was injured.

“Ouch. Someone woke up on the wrong side of bed this morning.”

“More like Scott started talking about the play and that turned into him talking about it for hours,” he yawned, stretching his back and finally pulling out the stuff he needed for class. Alex was thankful he wasn’t actually in the play so he could simply watch and leave as soon as it was over. Well, he wouldn’t leave right away since he would wait for Hank to be done changing and then they were going to hang out after. Alex didn’t know what they were going to do, but he knew that whatever it was, he would still have fun.

“Well, you have two whole weeks to sleep since it’s break.”

“Yeah,” Alex sighed, “but I at least get to kick it off with you.”

A faint blush rose to Hank’s cheek and Alex bit down on his lip as he thought about how cute Hank was when he was flustered. Hank let out a faint laugh and adjusted his glasses as he cleared his throat. “You do, because I am the best,” Hank boasted and Alex laughed.

“Yeah you are,” he agreed.

Both boys were oblivious to the person standing in front of their table. Well, Alex did notice them, but he was clearly busy having a conversation with Hank to engage in the other person. But Hank, being the kind person that he was which Alex liked him for, turned his head away from Alex and greeted the other person.

“Angel,” Hank said her name with slight confusion, “Something I can help you with?”

“Yes actually,” Angel cleared her throat and casually crossed her arms over her chest, “Raven is sick and she won’t be able to make the play today.”

Alex’s eyes went wide. “She’s sick? Of all days today?”

“Mhm,” Angel hummed, “it’s terrible. Really, it’s horrible that she won’t be here but you know, maybe Mr. Howlett will let me take her place and-”

“You’re not understudy,” Alex interrupted, “I am.”

Oh shit. Alex was understudy. That meant...no, it couldn’t possibly happen. There was no way, no way that Scott would make Alex be Juliet. They didn’t have a wig, Alex was sure they could find one though but he didn’t want to believe that thought, and Alex couldn’t wear Raven’s costume either! For one thing, he could not fit the top since he did not have boobs and would his own brother force him to wear a dress? Alex was sure he wouldn’t mind wearing one, he never tried, but he knew Raven’s wasn’t going to fit him regardless.

...wait that meant Alex had to kiss Hank too…

God he couldn’t do that could he?! Alex knew he wanted to kiss Hank, yes, but if they kissed then Alex would have to tell Hank he liked him and that would lead to them not being friends anymore since Hank does not like Alex like that. Why the fuck did Raven have to get sick?!

“And Alex will do a fine job as Juliet,” Hank said, snapping Alex out of his thoughts. Was Hank insane?! Why was he being so cool about this? Alex was going to have to play his love interest and they had to be a couple and this was really not going to end well. “Thank you for letting us know, Angel,” he flashed her a kind smile as she walked away and turned to look at Alex. “What?”

“What do you mean, what?!” Alex exclaimed a bit loudly, believing that his best friend was truly and utterly insane. “Hank, I’m about to play Juliet and you-you don’t want me to play her! You want Raven to play her!” Hank shrugged, he shrugged this off like it was no big deal and was Alex the only sane person here?! 

“Men used to play women's roles all the time, it will truly be Shakespaerian.”

“That’s not the point.”

Hank turned his body to the side of his chair, facing Alex more. “And what is the point then?”

“The point is that I will not play Juliet. I don’t care if I’m understudy or whatever, Scott and Howlett can find someone else when they’re done sucking off each other’s faces,” he shivered at his own words. Was it extremely weird for him that his brother was dating his History teacher and was very happy about it? Absolutely and Alex really hoped Scott didn’t break up with him till the year was over so Alex didn’t have to suffer the consequences of Howlett taking his anger out on him though. He was happy for Scott though that he finally found somebody and he did seem really happy....and Alex had a feeling him and Logan would be together a long time, he could tell.

“Don’t you think it would be fun?” Hank mentioned hopefully and Alex shook his head.

“No, not one bit. The whole point of me being in the play was to get out of Boy Scouts and not get heavily involved! But no, Raven had to go get sick and now I have no choice. This is karma, fucking karma.” Alex shook his head at himself and rested his head in his hands. “Maybe if I skip out-”

“No,” Hank said sternly, making Alex turn to catch his gaze again. “Don’t you dare even say that, Alex.” Alex sat up straighter, really taking in how pissed off he really looked. Hank was huffing, literally huffing and Alex noticed his hands were balled into fists. No wonder Peter called him Beast. “We have been working on this play for the past two months. You were there to see how long rehearsals were and how tired we were and now you don’t even care?” He scoffed at him and Alex scoffed right back.

“You seriously mad at me over this?”

Hank shook his head as he turned away from Alex, staring straight ahead and writing down whatever was written on the board. “If you don’t care then you should’ve never signed up for it in the first place,” he muttered and Alex rolled his eyes.

“And do what? Run? Like that was something fun? Or do I join the stupid-”

“Chess is not stupid, I did the club for most of high school before the play and just because you don’t enjoy it or find it boring doesn’t make it stupid,” he snapped. “If you want to ditch the play then go right ahead, I’m not going to stop you, but don’t act like it’s dumb or stupid when your best friend clearly has interest in it.” 

“You’re mad, that’s noted,” Alex said to himself, starting to take out his things.

“God Alex would you stop it already?” Alex froze at Hank’s announcement and he didn’t even have to look up to know whoever was in the room was probably staring at them. “You’re acting so immature for your age right now and is it that hard for you to suck it up and take one for the team?”

Alex felt a sharp pain run all through his chest before settling into a pit at the bottom of his stomach. He dropped whatever book he was holding back in his bag as he gave Hank his full attention. “Thank you for that lecture no one, especially me, asked for,” he said dryly, knowing getting defensive and being a complete dick to Hank wasn’t the right move. “If you think I’m so immature, then maybe you should find someone else to be your friend.” He didn’t wait for a response from Hank; he grabbed his bag and walked right out of the classroom.

_Scene III_

Erik heard the bell ring and he groaned against Charles’ lips before pulling away. “Time to get back to reality,” he sighed to him a little sadly.

“One more,” Charles grinned as he pulled Erik into a final kiss. But Erik heard the door starting to open and he quickly pulled away and smoothly got Charles off of his lap. Charles gained his composure quickly and cleared his throat. “Thank you for discussing that issue with me, Mr. Lehnsherr, it was very informative.” Erik nodded at him, looking at who had entered and letting out a sigh.

“Hello Alex,” Erik greeted him a little dryly as Alex sat down in the chair across from his desk. “What seems to be troubling you today?”

Alex looked up and looked right at Charles. “She really had to get sick?”

“She will be alright,” he answered calmly.

“By tonight?”

“No, not for another few days, unfortunately.”

Alex scoffed. “Great, fucking great.”

Erik gave Charles a look and Charles gave him one back before he took that as a cue to leave. Erik focused his attention back on Alex, wondering what could possibly be the issue this time. “You swore in front of the principal,” he stated bluntly. 

“Did you hear that before or after he was sitting on your lap?” Alex retorted and Erik sat up a little straighter in his desk chair, looking at Alex seriously. 

“Why are you here?” Erik asked with his voice flat and his face grim. 

“I want to drop out of the play.”

Erik let out a very faint laugh and saw that Alex was serious. “Isn’t tonight opening night?” Alex nodded. “I do believe they’re going to need all hands on deck tonight so why would you quit?”

“Because if I don’t quit, then I’ll be stuck forcing to kiss my friend, well I guess he’s not really my friend anymore since we got into another fight again, and yeah that’s pretty much it.” Erik hummed, wondering how much teenage angst Alex could seriously go through on a daily basis. 

“You know Alex, you can do whatever you please. If you want to not participate in the school play by all means, don’t do it. No one is going to stop you but please consider the possible consequences that could happen.”

Alex shrugged. “Scott will be pissed at me, Hank is already so I don’t have much to lose.”

“Hank McCoy?” Erik questioned being all too familiar with Hank. He was Peter’s friend since middle school, and one of Peter’s pretty close friends too. He was a nice kid, very academically inclined, and never caused an ounce of trouble, ever. Erik hoped some of Hank’s behavior would rub off on Peter, but Peter was already way too set in his personality. “Is he the friend you’re talking about?” Alex nodded, a faint blush rising to his cheek. “He’s told you how he felt about this?”

“Yeah,” he sighed heavily as he ran a hand through his hair, “he was the one that wanted me to play Juliet, since I’m the understudy and all. Said I would do a fine job for whatever reason.”

Erik gave a slow nod of understanding, folding his hands together as he rested them on his desk and sat forward. “How long have you been friends with Hank?”

“Two, maybe three months. He has a huge crush on Raven though, that’s his motive for doing the school play.”

“But Raven is sick and Hank wants you to play Juliet,” Erik pondered himself, narrowing his eyes as he thought. “Did you ever think that Hank wants you to play Juliet for a reason?”

Alex shook his head. “His reason is probably to keep the show running.”

“Or perhaps he is aware of the situation, the kissing one I mean, and he wants to go on with it. Perhaps he likes you too, Alex.”

Alex snorted. “Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m pretty sure he’s still hung up on Raven since he liked her for a long time.”

“You never know.” Alex didn’t respond to that answer and Erik leaned back in his chair, turning his attention to his computer and clicking on his email. “You are aware that I cannot keep you here all day, correct? You have to go back to class at some point.”

“Can’t I just stay here till second period? I can’t go back to Chemistry.” 

“Yes you can. You have two legs Alex, use them,” he retorted, knowing fully well that Alex was shooting him a look. 

“Is there a chance I could go home instead?”

Erik shook his head. “You are not ditching school because of one incident.”

Alex shrugged and grabbed his bag. “Yeah well, doesn’t hurt to try.” And with that, he left Erik’s office without another word. God Erik was so glad he was not a teenager anymore, although, he did feel like one whenever he was with Charles, but that was a different story…

_Scene IV_

Three hours, three _hours_ before showtime and Scott did not have a Juliet. Well, he did have a Juliet, but Alex was being stubborn and uncooperative since he came home way too early in the morning and blatantly told Scott that he wasn’t going to be in the play. He loved his brother no doubt, but if Alex didn’t do what he said, he was going to kill him.

And what did he do? He dragged Alex all the way back to school and forced him to run lines with him in the vacant auditorium until Alex had these memorized like the back of his hand. Scott did not spend two whole months of his life in this school for nothing, no. He came here with a plan and he was going to exceed that plan and not let his little brother mess it up for him!

“Scott,” Alex began, breaking the silence that had formed nearly twenty minutes ago after they had finished.

“Don’t,” he hissed out, not evening looking at Alex. “You realize what you did, right? How you would let this whole play, something we’ve been working on for the past two months go to waste all because you didn’t feel like doing it?” He shook his head at his naive little brother, pushing himself off the chair he was sitting on and beginning a small pace in front of Alex. “When I tell Mom and Dad-”

“You’re not telling them anything, they don’t need to know about this.”

“Oh, they’re going to know all about this and this little stunt you pulled, Alex. But I’m not going to tell them,” he came to a halt as he looked at him, “you are. You’re going to be the bearer of bad news and tell them how you didn’t want to be in the play because of some stupid crush.”

“It’s not a stupid crush you asshole,” Alex gritted out. “It means something to me whether you see that or not and you know? I don’t even fucking care if you don’t understand because it’s none of your business, it’s my business. And because it’s my business,” he said as he stood up, his eyes leveling with Scott’s since they were pretty much the same height at this point, “I don’t want to be anywhere near Hank or let alone kiss him tonight, okay? We’re not friends anymore and I don’t want to make things worse than they already are.”

“You’re not friends with Hank anymore is not my problem. My problem is that you will not do what you are told. It’s your assigned role, Alex. There is no one else who can possibly play Juliet and I don’t care how your relationship with Hank is at the moment, you’re going to do it and that is final.”

“That’s not fair.”

“You’re right, it’s not, but neither is you backing out on this. You are going to play Juliet tonight since you know the lines and no one else does. You are the understudy, Alex, this is your job to fill in for someone who is not there. And guess what? Raven won’t be here tonight to so you’re going to take her place whether you like it or not. God Alex what is wrong with you? Why the Hell would you ever try to do something like that?”

Alex remained quiet and Scott could see the tears welling up in his eyes. He didn’t mean to make Alex even further upset than he already was, but he needed Alex to start acting his age and do the things he said he was going to do and not back out last minute.

“You’re the worst,” he gritted out finally and Scott shook his head again.

“And you’re being a real pain right now so we’re pretty much even,” he spat back. “You are going to be on that stage tonight and I do not want you leaving this damn school until nine. Do I make myself clear?” Alex rolled his eyes in response. “Answer me,” Scott demanded. “Do I make myself clear?”

Alex’s lower lip started to quiver and Scott saw the tears threatening to pour out and he let out a sigh as he pulled Alex into a hug. Alex wasn’t always keen on hugging anyone outside of their parents, but he did not put up much of a fight as Scott pulled him into one.

“I messed everything up,” he muffled into Scott’s shoulder before pulling back to look at Scott again. Alex’s eyes were fresh with tears and some continued to spill down his face as he sniffled. “Like I messed everything up with Hank and now he probably wants nothing to do with me and-and I ruined the play and-”

“Alex,” Scott said firmly to put an end to his ramble, “breathe. It’s going to be okay.”

“It can’t be. Like I really ruined things with Hank all over this play,” he slumped down on the stage and Scott sat down next to him, loosely wrapping his arm around him. “I just-I like him a lot and I wanted to tell him too, but I didn’t since I think he’s still not over Raven because he liked her for such a long time and I don’t want to be his little rebound crush or anything. And like, I want to avoid him too since he’s probably still upset with me and he’s the main reason why I don’t want to do the play because I don’t know if I can face him or not.”

Scott hummed in understanding, giving Alex’s shoulder a light squeeze. “God high school really is a mess, huh?” Alex let out the faintest of laughs and Scott felt a small smile tease at his lips. “Seriously though, I’m sure once you and Hank clear the air, apologize, things will go back to normal between you two. I’m not saying you have to confess your feelings for him or anything, but I promise you that this will all blowover. And as soon as the play is over too, you get to go home and forget all about it.”

“Yeah I guess,” Alex sighed, looking down at his hands. “What would you do? If you were in my position, I mean.”

“Well, for one thing, I would be in the play.” He gave Alex a playful nudge in the ribs for that statement. “And then I would be honest with Hank. You don’t have to tell him you like him, but tell him how your argument made you feel and he can tell you in turn how he felt by your words and actions. I do think you should though since there is a good chance he likes you back, well, I think he does at least.”

Alex sat up straighter and turned slightly to look at Scott. “You do?”

“Mhm, I see the way he looks at you. You may not notice because you’re not looking, but he does. He seems happy around you, Alex.”

“Okay. I’ll think about it,” he settled on saying. “So um, you’re dating Mr. Howlett, right?”

“Woah hold on,” Scott chuckled, “since when is this about me now? We’re talking about you, not me.”

“Okay but,” he persisted, “are you?”

“Is that your business?”

Alex nodded. “Kinda. You are my older brother after all and I did walk on you two almost kissing-”

“We’re not dating. Logan’s just a....friend.” Well, partially a friend. The real truth was Scott couldn’t stop thinking about their last encounter and he was honestly avoiding him since. He didn’t mean to, but Scott wasn’t the best at handling his feelings.

“Oh thank God,” Alex breathed a sigh of relief, “because that would’ve been extremely weird. Unless he makes you happy or something,” he muttered and Scott shook his head at him and ruffled his hair, receiving an annoyed look. 

“Sorry, old habits die hard.” He hopped off the stage then with Alex and gave him another hug. “Speaking of Logan though, I do have to drop by his classroom real quick before we really get into prepping for the play.”

“Go,” Alex shooed, “just don’t fuck on the back row desks, I tend to sit there.”

Scott gave him a weird look. “First of all we’re not dating and second, I’m not having sex in a school, Alex.” He gave his brother a wave goodbye before leaving the auditorium and heading off towards Logan’s classroom quickly. He managed to get there within about five minutes and didn’t even knock on the door before entering. “Hey,” he greeted, sounding winded, as he leaned up against the now closed door.

Logan looked up from the papers on his desk and over at Scott, making him feel a bit fluttery in the stomach. That was new. “Hi.”

Scott chewed on his lower lip, hating the awkward tension that was between them. “Everything should be all set for tonight. Alex is on board as Juliet, it took awhile but it’s done.”

“Okay.” Logan looked back down, starting to write on the paper in front of him.

“Okay,” Scott repeated. “See you tonight then.” Logan didn’t make any form of acknowledgement so Scott took that as his cue to leave. He wanted to bring up the other night, but maybe it was best he didn’t.

_Scene V_

Hank tugged at the collar of his costume, suddenly feeling nervous. He wasn’t nervous about performing his role, he was nervous about seeing if Alex had shown up or not. Hank really hoped he did so he could apologize to him for one thing, and mainly so he could kiss Alex and no one else. That was the main reason why he encouraged Alex to continue to be Juliet in the first place was so Hank could kiss him! The argument had gotten way out of hand and he honestly did not know where him and Alex stood at this point, but Hank wanted to clear things up with him, he needed to.

He wouldn’t know if Alex was here until the fifth scene. Hank didn’t see him ever come back to Chemistry class or saw him at lunch either. He was too busy running lines to himself to even look for Alex, and he had a feeling that Alex wouldn’t want him to find him either. 

Hank came out of his thoughts as he saw the curtain reopen, announcing the start of the fifth scene. This was it. This would be the scene that determined if Alex was truly here or not. Hank’s palms started to feel sweaty so he wiped them on his way too baggy costume pants. Knots and anticipation started to form in his belly as he saw two students, who were underclassmen and Hank never caught their names, took the stage as the servants. It was only a matter of seconds now before Hank would come back on stage himself and see who was Juliet.

“You are looked for and called for, asked for and sought for, in the great chamber,” one student said to the other.

“We cannot be here and there too. Cheerly boys; be brisk awhile, and the longer liver take all,” the student replied back and Hank watched as Piotr took stage, Peter following him in his path along with Ororo...and someone else dressed in a long blonde wig and rather uncomfortable looking dress. Hank waited about ten seconds himself before entering the stage, taking his place by one of the servants as he observed the scene fold out.

Hank didn’t take his eyes off Juliet, who was avoiding his gaze. He wasn’t sure if it was purposeful or not, but he watched them intensely, trying to figure out if they gave any clues to them being Alex. They were around his height, maybe a little bit taller but they could possibly be wearing heels? Hank wasn’t quite sure but soon enough, he would be able to see their face.

“Will you tell me that? His son was but a ward two years ago,” Piotr finished with his lines, at the moment, and now it was Hank’s turn to shine again.

He went over by the servant and had his body facing the audience but his head turned to look at Juliet. “What lady is that, with doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?”

“I know not, sir.”

“O, she doth the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night!” Hank boasted, continuing on with his lines as Juliet turned to face him fully. Blue eyes came in contact with his and Hank knew those eyes anywhere: It was Alex. He couldn’t help but smile with relief as he saw him and his stomach started to stir excitedly. “Did my heart love till now?” He continued on, “forswear it sight! For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night!”

Hank kept staring, boy did he keep staring while Peter and Piotr continued to go through their lines. He knew he should be paying attention to what they were saying but he didn’t care! Alex was here and that was all that mattered to Hank and he knew soon enough he would be kissing him. There was so much Hank wanted to say to him but he knew he couldn’t and wouldn’t be able to until the play was over. 

Peter and Piotr finally left the stage and Hank nearly raced over to Alex, taking his hands in his as he met his eyes. “If I profane with my unworthiest hand this holy shrine, the gentle fine is this: My lips, two blushing pilgrims ready stand to smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.” Hank gave Alex’s hand a squeeze as he saw the blush rise on Alex’s cheeks.

“Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,” Alex replied smoothly, his eyes not leaving Hank’s. It made him wonder what Alex was thinking at this moment, if he was as excited or nervous about kissing Hank himself. “And palm to palm is holy palmers’ kiss,” he concluded.

“Have not saint lips, and holy palmers too?”

“Ay, pilgrim lips, that they must use in prayer.”

“O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do,” Hank said as he stepped closer, “they pray, grant though, lest faith turn to despair.”

“Saints do not move, though grant from prayers’ sake.” Alex cleared his throat as Hank pulled one of his hands away and rested it upon his cheek. He stepped even closer to Alex, close enough to the point where Hank could feel his breath on his skin.

“Then move not, while my prayer’s effect I take.” He leaned his head in more, his eyes moving in between Alex’s eyes and lips. Hank licked his own. “Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged.”

Alex licked his own. “Then have my lips the sin that they have took.”

Hank sucked in a breath and closed the distance between him and Alex by kissing him softly on the lips. His eyes fluttered shut as Alex kissed him back, butterflies and excitement encompassing his stomach as they continued to kiss. He knew it was only supposed to be a simple peck, that was what Scott told him at least, and with Raven it would’ve been a cheek kiss but this was so much better. Not only was Hank being realistic with the scene, but he was kissing Alex! It felt so right, so natural to be kissing him in this moment. It was as if Hank was supposed to be doing this all along and it took him way too long to realize it. Alex truly was his Juliet.

“Sin from thy lips!” Scott hissed somewhere offstage, taking Hank out of his thoughts and pulling out of the kiss.

“Sin from thy lips?” Hank repeated, still in a daze as he looked at Alex. He looked so good in this lighting, so beautiful. “O trespass sweetly urged! Give me my sin again.”

Alex smirked this time as he wrapped his arms around Hank’s neck and pulled him into a longer and deeper kiss. Hank found himself smiling against the kiss as his arms moved to wrap around Alex’s waist, but it was cut short from Scott’s fairly loud and obvious clearing of his throat, followed by some whistles which were definitely from Peter. “You kiss by the book,” Alex said a little breathlessly when he pulled out of the kiss.

Both of them probably looked like idiots at the moment since they were simply grinning foolishly at each other but Hank did not care. He knew things would be alright with Alex and he was definitely kissing him again, on and offstage.


	6. Act V

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter is here!!! Enjoy!!!

_Scene I_

As soon as the lights dimmed, curtains closed, and all bows were done, Alex raced over to his dressing room and nearly ripped his costume off of him as he changed back into his everyday clothes. He fiddled with his hair in the mirror, his heart starting to beat excitedly as he was excited to see Hank. First thing Alex would do when he saw him would be to apologize and then, he would kiss him again.

There was a knock on his door and hope started to flood through him at the possibility of Hank being behind that door. Giving himself a quick look over in the mirror, Alex took a deep breath before he opened the door.

“Sweetheart! That was amazing!” Gushed his mother and before Alex could even register what had happened, he was engulfed into her arms and given a nice and log hug followed by a kiss to his head. “Scott called us this afternoon and told us you were going to be in the play! You never told us you were into theatre too!” He was pulled back then and saw his mother’s beaming face.

“Yeah, I-um-I didn’t know either,” he said a little awkwardly before being pulled into a hug from his father.

“Proud of you, son.” He gave him a pat on the back before he let him go and Alex brushed past them both to see Gabe was in the hallway, playing on his phone.

Alex walked over to him and ruffled his hair and Gabe whined, swatting Alex’s hand away. “Stop it loser,” he grumbled before returning his attention to his phone. “You and Scott are dumb for doing a play.”

“Maybe you’re too much of an idiot to appreciate one.” Scott had said, coming towards them. “One day Gabe, you’ll know what it’s like to appreciate-”

“God you’re so fucking annoying,” Gabe mumbled and Scott shot him a displeased look while Alex laughed.

“Gabriel Summers, you do not swear,” Scott scolded and Gabe flipped him off. “I’m going to tell Mom and Dad.”

“Do it, I dare you.” Gabe narrowed his eyes and Alex brushed past them both, making his way down the hall as he continued to look for Hank.

Alex excused his way through the crowded backstage, apologizing whenever he bumped into someone, and was congratulated by fellow castmates. He looked around the room and didn’t seem to find Hank anywhere, so he left the backstage area and made his way towards the auditorium seats.

“Hey!”

“Sorry,” Alex muttered as he bumped into someone. The person turned around and Alex saw that it was Peter, who was smiling excitedly at him.

“Dude you nailed it!” Peter nearly yelled. “And man those kisses with Hank were great! I’m glad you two finally-”

“Have you seen him?”

“Who?”

“Hank. Have you seen Hank?” Peter nodded. “Where?”

Peter pointed towards the exit. “I saw him head that way with Raven. Man, can you believe she showed up? She has mono and she still came to watch the play. I mean hey, good for her for having the dedication but people need to stay far away from her because she is so contagious.”

“Raven’s here?” Alex felt his stomach drop and a sense of worry started to fill him but he didn’t know why. 

“Yeah, she seemed a little upset too which can’t be good,” Peter went on, “probably because she’s sick, you know? Anyway, John’s having a party tonight at his house. You coming?”

Alex shook his head. “Can’t, sorry. I’ll see you later.” He made his way past Peter and made his way out of the auditorium into the hall. The hallway was fairly empty since most people were still lingering inside but Alex didn’t see Hank or Raven anywhere.

He walked further down the hallway and came to a halt when he reached a deadend. Alex started to wonder if Peter had got it wrong and Hank went with Raven somewhere else, so to keep looking, he turned on his heel and stopped again as he saw Hank was standing only a couple of feet away from him.

“Hey,” Hank greeted smoothly. He had changed out of his costume as well and was wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, his hands shoved into the pockets. “I was looking for you.”

“I was too, looking for you too I mean,” he replied a little nervously. “Peter told me I’d find you here with Raven.”

“Yeah, she wanted to congratulate me and apologized for missing out.”

Alex nodded, shoving his hands into his pockets as he stared at Hank. “You did a good job.”

“As did you.”

“Look Hank-”

“Alex, I’m sorry,” Hank interrupted, stepping even closer. “I shouldn’t have acted the way that I did this morning and the only reason why I did was because I really wanted you to play Juliet since I like you and I really wanted to kiss you.”

Alex’s breath caught in his throat. “You like...me?”

Hank nodded. “For like the past two months and I wanted to tell you but I didn’t know if you felt the same way or not so I didn’t say anything.”

“Hank, I like you too.” Alex smiled and felt his shoulders relax as he finally spoke the secret that had been weighing him down for so long. “I’m so sorry about this morning too and everything that I said because none of your interests are ever lame and there’s no excuse and I’m sorry. I was worried that when we would kiss it would ruin our friendship or something and yeah.”

“I think we can both agree that we were idiots,” Alex nodded, watching as Hank stepped closer and closer to him, “but,” he slid his hands out of his pockets as he got closer to Alex and wrapped them around his waist, “we’re idiots for each other.”

Alex hummed. “That doesn’t really make sense, but okay,” he giggled and Hank silenced him with a kiss.

_Scene II_

Once Scott hugged his parents goodbye and got another nasty look from Gabe, he went back to the stage and started to remove all the props. The school wouldn’t be touched for another two weeks because of winter break and Scott wanted the janitors to have an easy time when they came back so he did it himself. He didn’t have anywhere to be once tonight was over and there was no one crowding the stage either which helped with cleanup.

Thankfully for him, there were only about a dozen or so props out on display so he knew he would have an easy cleanup. He scooped up the plastic dagger Alex had used to stab himself with along with the small plastic bottle Hank used, gathering a couple more smaller items he could carry before turning around. Scott halted as he saw Logan standing off stage, his arms casually crossed over his chest and a grim expression on his face as he looked right at Scott.

“You know you don’t have to do that, right?” Scott shrugged at Logan’s question, trying to move past him but Logan blocked his way. 

“I know but I wanted to.” Scott replied as he stood there awkwardly, his arms full of props. “Look Logan,” he began, taking in a deep breath, “I-um-I really need to put these down.” Logan remained stoic and Scott let out a deeper sigh. “Okay so you’re not moving,” he said to himself, gently setting the props back down on the floor as he crossed his arms over his chest. “What?”

“You’ve been avoiding me.”

“I have,” Scott admitted because it was true and he wasn’t a liar and truly had no reason to deny it, “and I’m sorry. I didn’t know how to address what happened, or didn’t happen I should say-”

Before Scott could finish, Logan cut him off by pressing a chaste yet firm kiss to his lips before pulling back.

“-you just kissed me.”

“You talk too much.”

Scott huffed but nodded. That was fair. “You still kissed me though,” he looked up and down at Logan before stepping forward and kissing him again. Neither of them pulled away as Logan’s hands settled on Scott’s waist and Scott’s arms loosely wrapped themselves around Logan’s neck to pull him closer.

It took Scott about maybe five minutes before he pulled back but not away. His cheeks felt hot along with the rest of his body, and his heart was beating a mile a minute. Logan ran a hand through his hair that rested on his cheek, his thumb sliding down his lower lip.

“You kiss by the book.”

Logan let out a faint laugh and shook his head at him, a smile creeping onto his face.”You were always such a theatre a dork,” he teased and Scott smiled as well. “That’s one of the things I like about ya.”

Scott let out a faint gasp. “You like me? Since when?”

“Since when do you like me?”

Scott bit down on the inside of his cheek to hide his grin. “When I got to know you,” he confessed. He truly didn’t _know_ Logan back in college but now, well now Scott actually got to know him and yeah, he liked him. Maybe they didn’t always see eye to eye when working together but in a way, it made things fun. “But enough talking,” he said once he escaped his thoughts, leaning closer to Logan again. “Wanna go back to my place?”

Logan cocked an eyebrow. “Really Slim? We’re not even dating yet.”

_Yet._

Scott gave him a quick kiss on the lips before pulling back and taking his hand. “Your classroom unlocked?”

“No, but I got the key,” Logan smirked, giving Scott a heated kiss this time. “Let’s go.”

Scott completely contradicted what he told Alex but what Alex doesn’t know won’t hurt him…

_Scene III_

Erik greeted Peter backstage with an enormous hug and kisses all over his head. “Dad,” Peter groaned of embarrassment as he pulled back.

“Can a father not show his son how much he loves him?” Erik asked teasingly, grinning at his son. “I’m so proud of you, you really nailed it out there!” Peter beamed and hugged Erik again, making him laugh. “Ready to go? I have a surprise-”

“I’ll be back in five! Meet you at the car!” Peter quickly said before he ran off and Erik chuckled.

He made his way to his office where he unlocked the door and put his coat on, leaving it in there just because, and was about to leave when he heard a knock on his door. “Come in?” He called out, sounding a little confused. He wondered who could possibly be visiting him right now. He doubted it was Charles since he was too busy decontaminating his house from Raven’s sickness.

His door opened up and Erik shouldn’t be surprised to see Alex, yet he was. Alex gave him a small smile as he stepped in and closed the door behind him.

“I wanted to thank you, for everything.” Alex began and Erik gave him a small smile and a nod. 

“Just doing my job,” he replied as he grabbed his keys off his desk and walked closer to Alex and the door. “Have a good break, Alex.”

“You too, Mr. Lehnsherr.”

Before Erik could make any sudden movements, Alex gave him a hug before he left his office. Erik smiled to himself as he stepped out of his office and locked the door behind him. As he made his way down the hall, he saw Alex with another kid a few feet ahead of him, holding hands. Erik smiled some more knowing he’ll be just fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had so much fun writing this fic and I have another one coming soon!!

**Author's Note:**

> A little onset of what is about to transpire....
> 
> Let me know what you think, bug me about the next chapter (in two weeks on the 11!!) since I’m stretching this out a bit ;), or don’t say anything at all!!! Kudos and comments are very much appreciated <3
> 
> For more Halex/McSummers and Scogan content (if interested) follow me on tumblr: amcsummersgoddess


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